


The Beast Within

by Squarepeg72



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Diary/Journal, F/M, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:48:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 35,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25293457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squarepeg72/pseuds/Squarepeg72
Summary: Life is full of twists and turns. Meeting Bucky in elementary school set Steve on a path to be Captain America. Meeting Steve set Bucky on a path to the Winter Soldier. Meeting Bucky and Steve sets Hermione on a path to the connection between wolves and magic. But every new answer brings a new question. Can they find enough answers to tame the beast within?
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Steve Rogers
Comments: 50
Kudos: 41
Collections: Cast the Dice 2020, Hermione Granger's Big Bang 2020





	1. Prologue - Presents

**Author's Note:**

> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50167950656/in/dateposted-public/)   
> 
> 
> Written for #BigBang20 in Hermione's Haven
> 
> Inspired by [ Winter Wolf ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14980631)written for Off The Beaten Path Summer 2018 in Hermione's Haven
> 
> This story would not have been possible without my AMAZING Beta/Artist team of xxDustnight88 and DarkAngelOfSorrowReturns and the admin team of Hermione's Haven. I cannot thank my Beta and Artist enough for everything you have done during this process. They have helped keep me going back to writing and building this story. I still blame xxDustnight88 for my fall into fanfiction years ago, but I love her for it too. DarkAngelOfSorrowReturns' art makes me smile every time it comes into my inbox and I look forward to everyone else enjoying it, too. The Admin team at HH, especially Starrnobella, have made this event something I keep wanting to participate in and have been the little voice in the back of my head that keeps me writing until it gets done.
> 
> Hey guys! To the AMAZING readers who continue to read what I put out into the word, including the poems, this is the completion of a promise. When I wrote Winter Wolf two years ago, several of you asked for more and I told you I might, someday. Well, now it is someday. I have enjoyed plotting, planning and expanding to include before and after Winter Wolf. I truely hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I have creating it. 50,000 words is a lot to put together when I started out writeing poems that were barely 200. The plan is to have a new chapter for you every Wednesday until the story is told. I'm thanking you now for coming on this journey with me. Buckle up!
> 
> Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. Marvel characters are property of the Walt Disney Company and Marvel Studios. No copyright infringement is intended but movies and books were used for timelines and story direction. No profit is being made from this creation.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve Rogers gets a journal for Christmas and start putting his thoughts on paper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50117635507/in/dateposted-public/)  
>   
>  [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50272726012/in/dateposted-public/)  
> 

12/25/30

Ma got me this journal for Christmas. She said she was finding scraps of paper covered in writing and pictures all over the house. She said to use this as a place to draw and write. Maybe I can use it to figure out why the kids at school hate me. Not my fault, I can’t always breathe. If i was just big like that new kid. I hope this works, I’m tired of being mad but not letting them know.

1/5/31

I hate the cold. Makes it even harder to breathe. Especially when they decide to chase me. I wish Ma would let me stay home. But, she says I need school to get beyond this neighborhood. I wish someone would talk to me like I’m normal. I wheeze in gym, and no one talks to me unless they are giving me a hard time. I’m so tired of everyone thinking I can’t do anything… I’ll show them all one day, just wait…

1/15/31

Gym didn’t suck today. For the first time in forever, someone talked to me without chasing me down the street. The new kid sat with me and spoke to me. His name is James, but he wants everyone to call him Bucky. His dad is in the military, and he hates it here. He wants to go back to Camp Shanks where his dad used to work, but he says the Army likes to move people when they don’t want to move. He is also mad because he has to sit out gym for the next month. I have to sit out because I can’t breathe in the cold. Bucky broke his arm. He fell out of a tree. He says the doc says he has to wear the cast for the next month and can’t do anything that would bump his arm. We had to sit on the bleachers and watch everyone else play dodgeball. I want to play dodgeball. But, I almost passed out last time Coach let me play, so he makes me sit out now. Bucky was throwing a ball against the wall when gym started. Coach took the ball from him and made him sit with me when the ball hit his bad arm, and he cussed. Ma said he could come over after school tomorrow if he wants. She wants to meet his mom, and she thinks it’s good that I have a new friend. I hope he stays…

3/15/31

Ma is letting Bucky come and spend the night. His dad works out of town, and his Gran is sick. So he is spending the weekend with us so his mom can take care of her. Ma said we could go down to the park until dark if we don’t break anything. I’m just happy she is letting me out of the house. I got pneumonia not long after Bucky broke his arm. Ma got scared. I ended up in the hospital again. Ma hasn’t let me out of her sight except for school, since I came home. I hate the hospital—that stupid plastic tent they make me sit in because I sometimes can’t breathe. I hate asthma. I hate how it makes the air feel like mud settling into the bottom of my lungs. I hate it all. Why did it have to happen to me?

When I grow up, I am going to get rid of it. I don’t like my lungs deciding what I get to do. Bucky is always mad because the Army is always moving his family, and half the time he and his mom live somewhere different from his dad. He said Camp Shanks was the first place in a long time where they were all together. He misses his Pops like I miss mine. It’s been Ma and me for a long I almost forget what it is like with him around. I know why she worries, but I wish she wouldn’t. It doesn’t help what happens at school, but it would make home easier...

6/30/36

Bucky’s gone. His dad got orders to go to Fort Hood, and the whole family has to go. We can still write, but it is not the same. He tried to talk his mom into staying until my birthday, but the Army waits for no one… I hate this … 

8/1/38

FUCK … She would wash my mouth out with soap but FUCK! The Army says no because I sometimes can’t breathe and now Ma can’t either. I have to go back to the hospital. She needs me. Pneumonia sucks. She always worried that I would get it, but she has it instead... I wish Bucky was here. He enlisted last week. I should not be jealous... I shouldn’t but, FUCK!


	2. Prologue - Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James "Bucky" Barnes hate the Army. It has moved him everytime he get driends or it takes Pops away for months. Could this stop be any different?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50116845008/in/dateposted-public/)  
>   
>  [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50272556171/in/dateposted-public/)  
> 

12/20/30

Stupid Army. Stupid orders. We have to move again, and Pops isn’t coming with us. He has to go to Fort Monroe in Virginia. Mom says we can’t go this time. She wants to go back to Manhattan, so we at least have family. I want to stay here where I have friends. I don’t even know why I am writing any of this down. Mom said it will help, and one day I will want to read it. I just want to stay in one place for more than 6 months—Merry Christmas to me. I get to pack up everything and move .. again. She doesn’t understand. New schools suck even more in the middle of the year. She just yells when I get in trouble the first few weeks of school. I have to be tough, so they leave me alone. I don’t want to fight, but if they push me...

1/5/31

I hate school. The only good thing about school is gym. At least there, I can run, and no one calls me the new kid. There is another kid they give a hard time. He is small and scrawny, and he wheezes when they chase him. But, he doesn’t stop. He keeps coming back. What is wrong with him? Mom said it sounds like he has asthma. What is that? There is no way that kid is going to survive if he keeps standing up to them. Even Coach tries to make him sit out, but he gets right back in whatever we are doing. I thought I was stubborn.

1/15/31

That kid isn’t bad. Strange maybe, but not bad. I ended up on the bleachers with him during gym today. Coach won’t let him play because he has trouble breathing the air when it’s this cold. His name is Steve, and he and his mom live down the block. He asked a bunch of questions. He wanted to know how I broke my arm (Stupid Fred tripped me on the way home day before yesterday) and if I like this school. But he didn’t stop there. He wanted to know where I had been and how long I was staying. He talked about how he hated that no one talks to him unless they are giving him a hard time or chasing him. He showed me the journal he writes and draws in. Says it helps him sort things out in his head sometimes. I told him about hating the Army and how Pops is gone all the time even when we live in the same house. I told him how I hated the cast and how I just want to be like everybody else. The next month might not be as bad as I thought. Stupid cast ...

3/16/31

Spending another night with Steve and his mom. Gram is still not feeling good, and Mom needs to keep an eye on her. Steve’s mom is always watching him too close. He spent a few days in the hospital after an asthma attack a few weeks ago. Reminds me of Mom after I broke my arm. He is a lot stronger than she thinks he is. He hates having to sit out for anything. We went to the park last night and stayed until the streetlights came on. Steve can do things when people let him. I think his mom just doesn’t want to lose him. They lost his Pop when he was little, so it has always been just Steve and his mom. I miss Camp Shanks, but I think I could like it here in time. I miss Mom. I hope Gram is going to be okay.

6/20/36

Pops got new orders and wanted us with him. Now, I’m at Fort Hood. It isn’t where I want to be. The only good thing about moving is that it is summer and I don’t have to go to school. There’s a swimming hole down the road that a neighbor told Pops about. Mom won’t let me go until Pops can go with me. They are on bivouac until Friday. I miss Steve. Sent him a letter. Maybe I’ll hear from him soon.

8/15/38

FUCK. I hate Boot Camp, and now Steve isn’t joining me. They need good men, and he is the best. He is talking about finding a way to get in. No doctor is going to clear him with his lungs. But, then the letter got worse. His Mom is in the hospital with pneumonia. He can’t lose her.

8/18/38

I spoke too soon … FUCK … Boot Camp can’t end quickly enough. How do I tell him it will be okay when he has no one left …


	3. Prologue - Letters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are changing for Hermione Grnager. Is it for the good or not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50117635547/in/dateposted-public/)   
>  [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50271884413/in/dateposted-public/)

31 December 90

Mummy says I need to start writing down all the thoughts in my head so they will stop spinning me in circles. I hope she is right. I can never keep up with all of my thoughts. School can be hard because I get ideas for everything, but I never have time to finish everything. I haven’t told her yet, but I made a book float in the air the other day. I was thinking about what it would be like to make things lighter, so they were easier to move. I never expected the book on the bedside table to float to me. Mum and Dad will think I am losing my mind if I tell them. I wonder why and how that happened?

2 June 91

I got my acceptance letter to Badminton School yesterday. Mum says we can go shopping for supplies eventually. Mum also says to focus on our family holiday in July before I start to worry about a new school and a new year.

24 July 91

The strangest thing happened today. A OWL dropped a letter on our doorstep and it was addressed to me. Since when did the Post start using OWLS?

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

Where is that?

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_   
_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,_   
_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

Who is he?

_Dear Ms.Granger,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._   
_Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

_Yours sincerely,_   
_Minerva McGonagall_   
_Deputy Headmistress_

This makes ABSOLUTELY no sense. No one has ever heard of this school. There is no way I am going there. I can’t believe this. I am supposed to be shopping for Badminton. I’ll be right back. Mum is calling me. Someone wants to talk to me?

How can this be true? Witches and wizards do not exist. I am not a witch. Just because you come to my home wearing funny robes and explaining things I have not even told Mum about does not make it real. But for some reason, Mum and Dad trust her, and we are going shopping with her for my school supplies in some place called Diagon Alley. This makes absolutely no sense. Even this supply list makes no sense. Since when was a cauldron an essential part of school work? And quills? Well, maybe the uniform makes sense, but nothing else. Even the book titles are wonky...

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_UNIFORM -_ Most of this makes sense

 _First-year students will require:_  
 _1\. Three sets of plain work robes (black)_  
 _2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear -_ Why do I need a pointed hat?  
 _3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) -_ Dragons do not exhist  
 _4\. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)_  
 _Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags._

 _COURSE BOOKS_  
 _All students should have a copy of each of the following:_  
 _The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_ _by Miranda Goshawk_ \- Spells? This cannot be real  
 _A History of Magic_ _by Bathilda Bagshot_ \- I guess this is important if I am going to a school with Magic in its name  
 _Magical Theory_ _by Adalbert Waffling_ \- Magic has a thoery?  
 _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_ _by Emeric Switch_ \- What is Transfiguration?  
 _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ _by Phyllida Spore_  
 _Magical Drafts and Potions_ _by Arsenius Jigger_  
 _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ _by Newt Scamander_ \- This would be a good thing to know  
 _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_ _by Quentin Trimble_

 _OTHER EQUIPMENT_ \- This is the strangest list of school supplies I have seen  
 _1 wand_  
 _1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_  
 _1 set glass or crystal phials_  
 _1 telescope_  
 _1 set brass scales_  
 _Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad._ \- I can handle a cat, maybe

  
 _PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS_ _ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK -_ *NEVER going to happen,EVER. Why would I want a BROOMSTICK?!?!

_Yours sincerely,_   
_Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus_   
_Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions_

2 September 91

Platform 9 ¾ … I didn’t believe it existed. Or that I would have to run through a wall to get there. I thought Mum was going to faint when we ran at the wall like Professor McGonagall told us to. It is going to take a while to get used to this magic world and being called a Muggleborn. Some kids here say Muggle like it is a bad thing. I met a couple of boys on the train ride to Hogwarts, Ron and Harry. Harry had baggy clothes and broken glasses. I fixed his glasses with a simple spell. The clothes fixed themselves when we had to change into our uniforms. Ron has a RAT. You can tell he has older brothers and he has their clothes now. The boys are okay, but they can’t seem to stay out of trouble. They were late to Transfigurations today. I hope this is not a trend because we got paired together in Potions class. This has disaster written all over it. Boys are such pains ...

31 Oct 91

I thought Ron was a horrid creature until tonight. He speaks before he thinks, and can never get the spell right on the first try (that could be because he has a hand me done wand as well as hand me down robes). He also has to say the opposite of me even when he knows I’m right. Tonight, though, he remembered that I was in the loo when they were told that there was a troll in the castle. He made Harry come with him to try to find me. They found me and the troll at the same time, in the girl’s lavatory. It was Ron’s fault I was there and crying (he can be so mean and stupid). But he and Harry tried to distract the troll, so I could escape the stall I was trapped in. Harry may not forgive him for the troll bogies on his wand, but I am happy he got the Wingardium Leviosa spell right for once. I don’t know how he managed to drop the troll’s weapon on its head, but I am not going to question it. I’m just glad it is all over.

15 December 91

I asked Mum and Dad if I could stay at school for the holidays. Harry isn’t going home, and from the stories he tells, what family he has left isn’t worth going home to. Ron decided to stay so Harry wouldn’t be alone, and I decided to stay to try to keep them out of trouble. I was right. Trouble follows those boys like a shadow. Besides, there will be more time to do research in the library without classes to attend. If we are going to figure out what is going on, we are going to have to research. Now, all I have to do is find a way into the Restricted Section without getting expelled

10 February 92

Yet another thing the boys do that I do not understand - Quidditch. Who in their right mind would get on a broom and fly around chasing and avoiding little balls? It makes even less sense than football. Ron is so busy watching the sky and wanting to be up there with his brothers that he almost missed a professor trying to kill Harry. The boys say I am overreacting again, but SOMEONE was trying to hex Harry during a game and nearly killed him. I am never going to understand those two. I swear they are going to get us expelled before our first year is over. I cannot have that on my school record.

26 May 92

Never again. Those two (and Draco) are the reason why I had detention last night. Just like everything else in this place, it was not ordinary detention. We had to go with Hagrid into the Forbidden Forest. I never want to go there again. And that poor unicorn. I didn’t even know they were real and now at least one of them is dead so some creature could keep on living. I also now know that centaurs are real and live in the Forbidden Forest. One named Firenze saved Harry from whatever that creature that killed the unicorn was. I never want to go in there again. But, knowing those two, I’m sure we will be ...

24 July 92

Mum and Dad let me spend some time with the Weasleys at the Burrow. They thought it would help me stop worrying about Harry. We have not heard from him since we left school. He was worried about how his aunt and uncle would treat him when he went back to their house. He doesn’t call that place home. Ron is talking about mounting a rescue operation because Harry is not answering anyone. I really don’t think that it is a good idea, but Ron was already talking to Fred and George … This is not going to be good ...


	4. Chapter 1 - Transformation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot can happen is a little time. Through determination and science, Steve transforms himself from unrecruitable to invicible. But, at what price?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50196667828/in/dateposted-public/)   
> 

_3/1/42_  
_They did it again, Stupid asthma. Stupid 4F. I can do this if they just let me. I’ll try another place in a few weeks_

Steve looked at the paper he held in his hand. He hated that 4F stamp. He could make it through every stage of the recruiting process until the doctor looked at his medical record. He just wanted to enlist and do his part. But, the minute a doctor saw he had lung issues, he was taken out of the mix. He just wanted to serve. He didn’t have anything here. Steve felt like he was getting left behind. The world was going to war, and he wanted to do his part. “I’m going to figure this thing out.”

“Figure what out?” Bucky’s question caught Steve off guard. “What are you sitting in the dark mumbling about? Please tell me you are letting this go. There are other ways. You don’t have to enlist.”

“What else am I going to do?” Steve began to pace the small space that counted a backyard. “Work in the factory where the boss won’t even talk to me because he sees asthma on my health record. Work at the grocer’s while every other kid from the neighborhood gets on a bus to head out for basic training. I want to do more.”

“Buddy, there is a reason why your lungs always come up as an issue.” Bucky put his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “What are you going to do when they decide not to work, and you are in the middle of smoke and guns?”

“Fight.” Steve turned to look Bucky in the eye. “What I have always done. Fight to breathe so I can fight for what’s right.”

“Some fights aren’t worth it.” Bucky looked back at Steve. “I’m going to fight for both of us.”

_6/14/43_  
_Again. I can’t get in and Bucky is headed for England tomorrow. He wants to take some girls out on the town tonight. What could it hurt … It’s not like I am going anywhere but Brooklyn._

Steve walked down the street, looking at the paper in his hand. Try number five - still no luck. He was supposed to meet Bucky later to go dancing, but he really didn’t feel like it. The lights on the marque drew his attention. Maybe a movie could take away the memories of the look on the doctor’s face as he read the words that led to that stupid stamp.

“One for the next show.” Steve handed over his nickel and took his ticket from the girl in the booth. There had to be a way he could get into the Army. The cool darkness of the theatre balcony would be so much better than the hot, loud sidewalk, at least for now.

“You just don’t know when to give up,” the heckler from the theatre said as he took another swing at Steve in the alley.

Steve held up his fists and smiled. “I can do this all day.”

His swing didn’t land on the heckler’s chin like he had imagined, but Steve did make him take a step back. The heckler’s next punch was stopped by a different fist.

“Hey, pick on someone your own size,” Bucky said as he spun the heckler around and landed a solid shot to his jaw. Steve watched as Bucky used his fists and feet to move the man out of the alley.

Bucky turned back to Steve and shook his head. “I’m beginning to think you like to get punched. How many times are you going to do this?”

Steve shrugged as he picked himself up off the ground. Bucky picked up the paper that had fallen out of his pocket. “I see. How many times are you going to do this? If you get caught lying on these forms, you will get in a lot of trouble.”

“Did you get your orders?” Steve’s question caused Bucky’s smile to falter.

“Going with the 107th to England. Shipping out in the morning.” Bucky put his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Let’s get you cleaned up and go see the future.”

_6/15/43_  
_I guess the sixth time is the lucky charm. I thought I was headed for prison, but now I am headed for something else.They finally let me enlist. There is a special top secret program, Strategics Scientific Reserve, and they want me for it. They want me, the orphan from Brooklyn with bad lungs and a big heart. At least Ma won’t have to worry. I wish I could tell Bucky, but he is in the field and this is top secret … If I survive it, I’ll find Bucky … Dr. Erskin said they had a way for me to serve_

Steve took one last look around his apartment. The landlord said he would hold the place for him for six months, sublet it if he could. Steve grabbed his duffle and walked out the door. He was meeting Dr. Erskin to catch a bus to his new place. “This had better work out.” Steve sighed as he closed and locked the door. “I am running out of chances.”

Steve tried to stand at attention and not squint. Facing into the sun was the least of his trials so far. Everyone looked at him like he didn’t belong. Especially the Colonel.

But, he had to stay to prove himself. He had to run the miles and crawl through the mud and clamour over the wall. He never seemed to be the first at anything, but he wasn’t giving up this chance.

“Not quitting” Steve mumbled to himself as he sketched the interior of the barracks into his journal. “Too much to lose if I give up.”

“What was that?” A female voice floated into the barracks. “Who are you talking to, Rogers?”

“Just trying to get my thoughts in order, ma’am.” Steve stuttered his reply as he laid down his journal. “Helps me keep going, get my thoughts together for what’s next. A trick Ma taught me.”

“Well, you are about to be late for your next run, Private Rogers.” Agent Carter turned to leave the barracks. “Don’t forget to bring that brain of yours.”

_9/15/43_  
_Dummy grenades may get me killed. I thought I was dead when the Colonel threw that grenade into the middle of us. But, I’d rather be dead than the rest of them. Some sacrifices are worth it._

Steve looked around the Colonel’s tent as he tried to get his heart back in his chest.

“Well, son, that is one hell of a way to pass a test.” Colonel Phillips paced behind his desk. “I still can’t believe the doc wants you for this, but he seems to think you are the perfect man for this assignment.”

“That was a hell of a test, sir.” Steve swallowed his fear as he watched the Colonel continue to pace. “I just want to find a way to serve. No matter what the test.”

“Well, the doc and Stark want you in Brooklyn for the final steps next week, soldier. Pack your bags and follow Agent Carter. Good Luck, son.”

_9/18/43  
No matter what happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. You will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man._

Steve watched Dr. Erskin pace on the platform before him. The doctor’s words before he climbed into the machine were still echoing in his head. “Doc, everything okay?” Steve could hear the nerves in his own voice. “I’m good here.”

“Just remember, my boy. Just remember.” Dr. Erskin placed his hand on Steve’s shoulder as the injections began. “Just remember.”

_9/19/43  
What did they do to me? Who am I now? I can breathe. I can run._

Steve was still trying to figure out what he had just done. After the explosion, nothing made sense. The doctor was dead. He had chased down a guy, driving a taxi, on foot. He had never been able to run like that. “What did I let them do to me?”

“You became what the doctor expected,” Agent Carter’s voice echoed through the dark room. “You are the super-soldier we expected you to be. You are stronger, faster, and healthier than you have ever been in your life.”

“But who am I?” Steve let the questions bounce around the room. “I did this to be a part of the fight, and now I am being shuffled off to something else?”

“I’ll work on the Colonel,” Agent Carter sighed and turned to leave the room. “Until then, you are whatever they say you are, no matter what we know you need to be.”

_11/2/43  
This is not how I pictured getting there. I signed up to be a soldier, not a vaudeville show._

Steve looked down at the sketch he was creating. A monkey on a unicycle carrying a shield. “This is not what I signed up for.”

Steve continued to sketch as the rain came down. “Today’s show was a disaster. These guys hate me. They think I’m a cartoon.”

“Steve?” A familiar voice pulled Steve out of his sketches. “That was quite a performance. You were made for more than this.”

“We both know that.” Steve watched an ambulance pull into the tent across from them. “When I dreamed of coming here, it was to fight not to be on a stage in tights. Who wants to laugh when that is their reality.”

“Most of these men are what little is left of the 107th.” Agent Carter closed her eyes as she gave Steve the news. “Those that didn’t come back are either dead or captured.”

“Did you say the 107th…”

_11/3/43_  
_I’m going to defy an order and find Bucky. I am not a dancing monkey. I'm a soldier_

Steve watched the men he had liberated walk through the forest. Not everyone was coming home, but there were a whole lot more men walking with him than he had expected.

“So, what happened to you?” Bucky asked as he walked along beside Steve.

“I joined the Army,” Steve answered with a smirk. “Finally decided to come and find you.”

“What do we do now, wise guy?” Bucky looked behind him as he continued to walk. “We have a few guys that need something new to do.”

“I’ll talk to the Colonel.” Steve put a hand on Sucky’s shoulder. “If he doesn’t arrest me, we’ll see if we can’t go after Hydra.”

_1/15/44  
Every day, we knock out another Hydra base. The scientist is on the run. We need to finish this._

Steve stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the train tracks. Snow and wind swirled, just like the thoughts in his head. “Time to get this done.”

“In a hurry or something, Cap?” Bucky’s voice was low and full of humor. “The train and the doctor will be here soon enough.”

“Let’s do this.” Steve grabbed the toggle and laid it over the wire that hung over the track. “One step closer to the end, boys.”

The cold wind stole Steve’s breath as he flew towards the train. Something didn’t feel right about this, but he had committed his men to this course, and he had to see it through.

 _2/15/44  
_ _I never thought I would have to do this. He was my right hand man and now he is gone. Why did he pick up my shield? Why did that bar have to break? Why can’t they find his body? Why did I have to lose him again? Why can’t I get drunk enough to forget why everything hurts?_

Steve looked around the destroyed cockpit of the plane. He had to find a way to keep this wounded duck from reaching New York. “Think, Steve. What can we do to stop this thing?”

He needed to let someone know what he was doing. “If I can drop this thing into the ocean, it can’t blow up New York,” Steve muttered as he tried to figure out the controls. “There has got to be a way to let the Colonel and Peggy know what’s happening.”

Flipping switches and pushing buttons, Steve opened a channel to the Hydra base “Come in. This is Captain Rogers … Peggy, this is my choice.”


	5. Chapter 2 -Transformatsiya (Transformation)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky wakes up in a strange world full of words and people he doesn't know. Can he survive the transformation they force on him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50272556141/in/dateposted-public/)  
> 

_2/10/44_  
_It’s still hard to get used to the new and improved Steve. He looks different on the outside, but he is the same stubborn Brooklyn boy on the inside. We are going after Hydra. This plan is nuts. Slide down a cable onto a speeding train, in the snow. Well, all his other plans have worked._

Bucky watched Steve slide down the wire in front of him. Landing on the train, he let out the breath. “So, is the plan to stand on the top of this speeding bullet and freeze to death?”

“No, the plan is to get into the train and stop it before it gets to where it is supposed to be,” Steve yelled over the noise of the train and the wind. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Bucky followed Steve into the train car and returned fire as Hydra meet them with guns blazing. “I thought you said this was going to be easy?” Bucky grinned as he waited to step out and take a shot.

“Just said it would work, not how,” Steve replied as the firefight continued. “Catch.”

Bucky caught Steve’s shield as he stepped into the aisle of the train car. A blast from the Hydra soldier’s weapon deflected off the shield and blew out the side of the car. Bucky dropped the shield as he scrambled for a stable place to grip.

“Bucky,” Steve’s cry caught in his throat. He watched in horror as Bucky grabbed onto the bar that dangled loosely from the remains of the train car wall. “Grab my hand, buddy…”

_Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon_

Nothing but those words and pain. Make it stop. Make it stop.

Bucky struggled against the straps that held him to the table. “You will remember these words. You will do as you are told.” The man in the shadows spoke in a thick voice. “We have much work to do with this one.

“Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York.” Bucky chanted as the words continued to assault his ears. “Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York.”

“He will see he cannot win.” The shadowy voice was joined by another. “We will fix his arm, and then we will fix his spirit. There is still magic to be done.”

“He will never completely be yours,” A female voice interrupted the deep rumble of the other two voices. “These Americans are stubborn and headstrong. You may have him for a while, but you will not keep him forever. You barely rescued him from the ice you found him in.”

Bucky struggled to keep his eyes open. He knew he needed to look around the room and start building a plan to escape. But the drone of the words in the background and the pain in his arm was overwhelming. “Just a few minutes of peace,” he whispered as he closed his eyes. “Just a few minutes of peace.”

Agent Romanoff looked at the man laying on the table. “You will be lucky if he survives the infection in that arm. You might want to fix that before you try to take over his brain. There is only so much the doctor could have done to him before he escaped.”

“When the new arm is ready, we will take care of the old one.” A shadowy figure at the edge of the room joined in the conversation around the table. “Does Dolohov have his part ready?’

“A few more spells and a trip to the Carpathian Mountains and it will be.” Antonin Dolohov stepped out of the shadows and looked at the man on the table. “He will need to be in better health before we can start the transformation. I will need to see the arm as well.”

“It is just a prosthetic.” The shadowy figure replied. “What does it have to do with his other form?

“If it cannot transform with him, what good will it do him?” Dolohov continued to study Bucky. “You are asking me to turn an ordinary man into a werewolf. It will do us no good if he has to take his arm off to transform.”

“Make it work, all of you.” The shadowy figure disappeared into the darkness.

Bucky knew he was in a nightmare. There was no way a man could become a werewolf. He was losing his mind. With a groan, he began to chant his identity again. It might be his only hope of getting free.

“Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York.”

_Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon_

The words never stop. The pain in his arm was gone, but the words were not. Day and night all he heard were those words.

“He has survived the loss of the arm,” The dark shadowy voice filled Bucky’s ears. “He will be ready soon for it’s replacement. Dolohov, is the pack ready to receive him?”

“The pack will be ready. Is the soldier ready?” Dolohov’s voice came closer to Bucky’s right side. “We have to wait for the full moon and Fenir to complete that part of his transformation. He will not be a traditional werewolf.”

“Dzhentl'meny,” a femenine voice floated through Bucky’s foggy brain. “If we are to turn him into a weapon for Russia, he should speak Russina. And, so should you.”

“Agent Romanoff,” The dark shadow’s voice filled the room. “As much as we appreciate your input, you have nothing to do with this. Why are you here?”

“Direktor Zinov'yevna, I have been instructed to assess and train him.” Romanoff answered. “I received the orders days ago. A soldier must be trained if he is to be an effective weapon.”

“He has only just begun to heal,” Dolohov's voice added to the shadowy conversation. “He will not be ready to train until his body has accepted the new arm, and the wolf magic.”

Bucky struggled to open his eyes and join the conversation. “I am not …”

Bucky felt a small hand push down on his left shoulder. “You are who Mother Russia and Hydra say you are, _Zimniy soldat. Slushat'. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor'ba. Skoro uvidimsya_.”

“I am Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York.” Bucky forced the words past dry lips. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

“That man died when you fell from the train.” Her dusky whisper barely reached his ear. “You are now _Zimniy Soldat_ \- Winter Soldier. The harder you fight, the longer they will keep you from our tasks.”

“Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York.” Bucky continued to chant, a counter to the words that were always in the background. “I will not lose who I am. Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York.”

“ _Mat' Rossiya vsegda poluchayet to, chto khochet, soldat. Sokhrani etot boy na potom_.” Romanoff squeezed his shoulder and turned from Bucky. “You have until the next full moon to get him ready for me. They will not wait longer than that to put him into the field.”

“Magic takes time.” Dolohov’s voice shook as he watched Agent Romanoff walk away from their subject. “The pack could kill him if the spells don’t. We must take care.”

“We take him to the mountains soon, Agent Romanoff.” The director’s dark voice stayed in the shadows. “He will be ready when he is ready. The best weapons are forged in pressure and time.”

“Don’t make them wait too long.” Romanoff’'s voice moved away from Bucky as he lost his fight to stay awake. “They are not as patient as you think.”

_Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon_

The dark voice that haunted Bucky’s conscious moments continued to drone on as he felt the hard ground beneath him. He had passed out as they forced him to walk from the train car to the truck at the station in the dark of the night. “Where have you taken me?” Bucky struggled to force the words past his dry throat. “Where are we now? Will you make that noise stop?”

“ _On vse yeshche slyshit slova, dazhe kogda yego net v laboratorii._ ” Dolohov looked around the forest as he addressed the shadow tha stood behind him. “The magic will continue until you no longer fight it. _On gotov k magii polnoy luny. Vash zimniy volk pochti gotov._ ”

“I am not a wolf. I am a soldier. Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York.” Bucky began to chant his identity like a prayer. It was the only thing that seemed to counter the voice in his head. “ _Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York_.”

“ _Teper' on govorit na pravil'nom yazyke. On gotov_.” The director’s dark voice joined Dolohov’s. “It is time to finish the transformation.”

Bucky heard the howl of wolves in the trees around him. His voice faltered as the howls drew closer. He was tired of living this nightmare. Maybe the wolves could make it end.

Dolohov approached Bucky, holding a stone goblet. “ _Napitok. Volki zhdut tebya_. It will be over soon. Your brothers wait for you.”

“My brothers are lost to me.” Bucky’s voice cracked as he fought against the goblet Dolohov pressed against his lips. “Do not make me betray them.”

“ _Petrificus Totalus_. You will do well to drink and be still.” Dolohov poured the potion down Bucky’s throat before dropping the stone goblet and walking back to the edge of the forest. “It is time to call your new brothers. The pack is restless.”

Bucky fought against the liquid in his throat and the ties that seemed to hold him to the ground. He could see shadows approaching as Dolohov retreated. Swallowing to keep himself from breathing, Bucky tried to yell. “The spell will hold you while the magic works.” Dolohov’s voice shimmered in the air.

“ _Chelovek volk. Volk cheloveku. Odinokiy, chtoby upakovat'. Pak tp odinokiy. Dukh volka svyazyvayet etogo cheloveka s yego novymi brat'yami. S polnoy lunoy sdelat' yego bol'she, chem on byl. Volk cheloveku. Chelovek k volku. Belyy volk podnimayetsya_.” Bucky’s eyes struggled to follow the wizard as he chanted. Furry shadows slid from the trees and began to surround him. Bucky felt the words seep into his bones. Then, he felt his bones snap and change. The wizard’s chant and the howls of his new brothers were all Bucky could hear as he fell into the black of oblivion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations into Russian done with Google Translate (please pardon any errors)  
> Dzhentl'meny - Gentlemen
> 
>  _Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon_ \- Longing, rusted, seventeen, daybreak, furnace, nine, benign, homecoming, one, freight car
> 
>  _Zimniy soldat_ \- Winter soldier
> 
>  _Slushat'. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor'ba. Skoro uvidimsya._ \- Listen. Heal. Train. Fight. I will see you soon.
> 
>  _Mat' Rossiya vsegda poluchayet to, chto khochet, soldat. Sokhrani etot boy na potom._ \- Mother Russia always gets what she wants, soldier. Save this fight for later
> 
>  _On vse yeshche slyshit slova, dazhe kogda yego net v laboratorii._ \- He still hears the words, even when he is not in the lab.
> 
>  _On gotov k magii polnoy luny. Vash zimniy volk pochti gotov._ \- He is ready for the magic of the full moon. Your winter wolf is almost ready.
> 
>  _Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York._ \- Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York
> 
>  _Teper' on govorit na pravil'nom yazyke. On gotov._ \- He speaks in the proper tongue now. He is ready
> 
>  _Napitok. Volki zhdut tebya._ \- Drink. The wolves wait for you.
> 
>  _Chelovek volk. Volk cheloveku. Odinokiy, chtoby upakovat'. Pak tp odinokiy. Dukh volka svyazyvayet etogo cheloveka s yego novymi brat'yami. S polnoy lunoy sdelat' yego bol'she, chem on byl. Volk cheloveku. Chelovek k volku. Belyy volk podnimayetsya._ \- Man to wolf. Wolf to man. Lone to pack. Pack to lone. Spirit of the wolf bind this man to his new brothers. With the full moon make him more than he has been. Wolf to man. Man to wolf. The white wolf rises.


	6. Chapter 3 - Transmografy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School is supposed to transform the way you see the world around you. Hermione's Third Year is no exception. How will those transformations change her life plans?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50272556051/in/dateposted-public/)  
> 

_1 September 93_  
_Remind me again why I spend time with these boys … Harry can’t even get to school without trouble following him. Some things called Dementors were on the train with us, and one nearly sucked the life out of Harry. If it hadn’t been for Professor Lupin and the bright light he cast from his wand, I’m not sure we would have survived. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall were not happy to hear about Dementors being on the train either. This is not the way I wanted to start the year …_

Hermione looked around the girls dorm as she closed her journal. She did not think she could survive another school year like the last two. She looked around the room at the other beds waiting for their occupants. Maybe some time with the girls would help settle her thoughts.

“Hermione, why are you up here?" Ginny’s voice pulled her from the thoughts Hermione had just finished putting on the page. “Everyone is still in the common room. The boys are asking where you ran off to. How do they manage to find trouble before they even get to school?”

“Please don’t ask that question too loudly, Ginny,” Hermione sighed and closed her journal. “I came up here for a little peace and quiet. We all know that I will not be able to find it once classes start.”

“Ron promised Mum he would stay out of it this year.” Ginny shrugged as she leaned on one of the posts of Hermione's bed. “Fred and George promised not to try out too many of their ideas on the First Years either. Mum threatened to grab them all by the ear if she had any owls about misbehavior or adventures before Christmas.”

“I wouldn’t count on any of them staying out of trouble.” Hermione started to laugh as she got off her bed. “They never go looking for it. Trouble just seems to find them.”

“At least Defense Against the Dark Arts will be interesting this year.” Ginny followed Hermione down the stairs toward the common room. “Professor Lupin from the train is the new teacher and he has chocolate.”

“Chocolate is not the cure for everything, Ginny.” Hermione stopped walking down the stairs. “Let's try to focus on the classes this term. I could use a year with a little less adventure.”

_31 October 93_  
_I was looking forward to going to Hogsmeade this weekend. But, Harry is stuck in the castle because his aunt and uncle will not acknowledge he exists and will not sign the permission to let him go. Potions class gets stranger by the day; Professor Snape keeps asking about potions made with monkshood or that are only effective at certain times of the month. He and Professor Lupin always seem to be at odds. That could be because Snape wants to teach DADA, or it could be something else. But things between them have gotten worse since the Fat Lady was attacked. Why would anyone attack her?_

Hermione looked up from her Potions book as Harry and Ron came into the Great Hall. They each carried several books and were unusually quiet.

“Have you two been to the library?” Hermione whispered as they set their books on the table beside her pile. “I usually have to drag you in there and spell you to a chair to get any research done. What’s going on?”

“Just tired of Snape snapping at me everytime I can't answer his questions about wolfsbane, monkshood, or every other strange ingredient he has asked about for the last month.” Harry shrugged as he looked over the books on the table. “I could use some help figuring out exactly what he is asking. Or what he is up to. Something just doesn’t feel right.”

“Don’t say that,” Ron whisper screamed as Harry sank into a chair at Hermione’s table. “Everytime you say that, the world goes wonky. Mum says never to go chasing dragon shadows when you are where dragons don’t live.”

“Harry, what have you heard?” Hermione looked up from her parchment to stop the brewing argument between Harry and Ron. “I know you like Professor Lupin and Snape hates you, but it sounds like you heard something.”

“I haven’t heard anything, I promise.'' Harry sighed and turned to look into the fireplace. “Just a feeling. It’s in the way Snape keeps asking us about strange and unusual potions, and they way he and Professor Lupin act around each other. Something is going on.”

“You are chasing dragon shadows, Harry,” Ron muttered as he picked up a book from the pile on the table. “It is bad enough we have to sleep in here tonight because of what happened to the Fat Lady. We don’t need you borrowing anymore trouble.”

“I don’t borrow trouble,” Harry protested.

“You just find it.” Hermione shrugged and returned to researching her essay.

_9 November 93_  
_Snape has lost his mind! He has assigned an essay on werewolves and the potions that can be effective against lycanthropy. He keeps trying to draw our attention to the fact that Professor Lupin is sick near each full moon. He has assigned essays on the creation of werewolves as well. He has us look into the uses of powdered silver and dittany. He and Professor Lupin practically growled at each other during dinner the other day. What is going on?_

Hermione closed the copy of Professor Emerett Picardy’s book Lupine Lawlessness: Why Lycanthropes Don’t Deserve to Live in disgust. She was tired of looking through books that blamed the victim for the condition they had to learn to survive and did not ask to have. She would not even be reading this book if she didn’t have an essay of werewolves due for Professor Snape in three days.

“This is ridiculous,” She grumbled to herself as she searched through her pile of books. “It’s as if he wants us to connect someone at the school to werewolves.”

“And that would surprise you how?” Harry asked as he sat beside her. “Snape is always pushing us to connect unconnectable things. He makes class impossible, and Lupin has started avoiding everyone.”

“There has got to be more to this than we can see.” Hermione reached for a book on anti-werewolf laws. “I saw them arguing in the hall the other day. Both of them seemed nervous, and neither of them seemed willing to give up on his side of the argument.”

“When have you ever known Snape to give up on his side of an argument,'' Harry grumbled as he pulled his quill and parchment from his satchel. “I just want to get this essay over with so I can study for Divination. That class makes less sense than Potions lately.”

“That class will never make sense to me.” Hermione let her quill drop to the parchment she had been writing on. “Nothing but fluff, mirrors, and speculation. A bad poet could write better predictions than I have found in tea leaves.”

“Speaking of tea leaves.'' Harry's chuckle sounded strained. “I have an essay to write on reading those after I finish this one. Want to help me?”

“Write your own essays, Potter.” Hermione tried not to grin as she watched Harry start to scratch words into the parchment in front of him. “I get into enough trouble just because I know you. I don’t need her to see just how much of an essay you didn’t write.”

_25 December 93._  
_Once again, I am staying at Hogwarts for the holidays. The professors have invited us to Christmas dinner with them. That could be interesting. I wish Harry felt like he could go home for the holidays, but he doesn’t really have a home. Just a room in a house where he has never been wanted. Mum tells me to count my blessings every year because not everyone has what I have. It doesn’t stop me from wishing that any of what has happened over the last three years wasn’t true._

Hermione looked around the small dining room. Professor Dumbledore had invited all the students who had not gone home for the holiday to Christmas Dinner with all the professors. Harry had become more withdrawn as Snape had pressed him in Potions class, and Ron had developed a slight tick before they climbed the stairs of the tower to Divination class.

“Happy Christmas, ‘Mione.” Harry’s voice reached Hermione before he did. “One of these years, we will celebrate Christmas somewhere besides here.”

“That would be nice.” Hermione smiled as she watched Ron enter the room. “I guess we had better find a place to sit before the table gets full. No sense in being late for Christmas dinner.”

“Did someone say Christmas dinner?” Ron joined Hermione and Harry as they walked towards the tables set up at the other end of the room. “As long as there are pumpkin pasties involved, I’m in. Mum sent gifts for all of us to open after dinner.”

“Leave it to you to think with your stomach.” Harry laughed and looked around the room. “Looks like all the professors are here, even Snape.”

“Lupin isn’t here,” Ron whispered. “I heard Snape bothering him about a potion the other day. They always seem to be arguing about potions when I see them together.”

“I don’t trust Snape. He is up to something.” Harry looked over at the table full of professors as other students filled up the table around them. “There is a connection between them that goes beyond this year. He seems to hate Lupin almost as much as he hates me.”

“Snape doesn’t hate you,” Hermione snapped. “He just pushes you. He wants us to find something out about Professor Lupin without telling us directly.”

“No more mysteries tonight,” Harry declared as he watched the first set of dishes appear on the table before them. “I just want to enjoy Christmas dinner with people I like. We can find Professor Lupin tomorrow.”

_8 January 94_  
_Harry has been spending a lot of time outside the classroom with Professor Lupin. Since he figured out the connection between his parents and Lupin, he has been spending all his time searching for answers. Harry has become obsessed with learning anything he can in DADA. he has somost stopped working on anything for any other class. What are we going to do to stop him from imploding?_

“‘Mione, have you ever heard of a Patronus?” Harry's voice brought Hermione out of the book on werewolves she had been reading. “Professor Lupin was talking to me about it today and I think I can master it.”

“Hold on a minute.” Hermione tried to catch up with the words that were tumbling from Harry. “What kind of charm? Why is Professor Lupin talking to you about charms at all?”

“He says it is a defensive spell that can be used for a variety of purposes. It’s what he used against the dementor on the train.” Harry was humming with excitement. “All I have to do is find the right memory and cast the spell.”

“No charm is that easy,” Hermione said, closing her book. “We need to research it before you go trying it, no matter what Professor Lupin says. There are dangers in casting spells and charms we know nothing about.”

“But, if I can make it work…'' Harry started to argue with Hermione.

“We take a chance of making things worse,” Hermione said, cutting off Harry’s chatter. “Professor Lupin has been missing classes and does not look well. I don’t know if we can trust him right now.”

“But if I can make the Patronus charm work...” Harry started his argument again. “I have a chance at stopping things before they get worse. I can stop what is coming.”

“No one can stop what is coming until they believe it is really coming.” Hermione shook her head and opened up her book again. “Let me see what I can find out about the Patronus charm. No sense in casting a spell that you don’t know how to control, no matter how much hope it offers.”

_15 February 94_  
_Things cannot get any worse. Sirus Black tried to kill Ron in the tower. Harry is staring into the fire, talking about killing a man and Ron thinks my cat killed his stupoid rat. I didn't need anymore trouble this year. I think there is something more going on with Professor Lupin and Sirius Black than just an escape from Azkaban and a professor with suspect absences. I think Snape is trying to point us to believe that Lupin is a werewolf. Why would he do this?_

Hermione looked around the Potions classroom to see who all was missing. Several people had sworn they were going to stay in the library all day and not attend class. That was just ridiculous. Things happen. People get attacked. Not usually in their beds in the Gryffindor tower, but it happens.

“Good to see you here,” Ron whispered as he slid next to her at their Potions bench. “Rumors were that no one was going to show for this class. They were all talking about not going to defense against the Dark Arts either.”

“Then, they are fools,” Hermione whispered back. “There is no way Black is going to try to go after anyone while we are in class. Especially with Snape.”

“I think I may be more afraid of Black than of Snape.” Ron opened his Potions book to the section Snape had written on the board. “At least, he is just trying to get us to brew every potion known that deals with werewolves.”

“About that,” Harry joined their conversation as they started looking for ingredients for their potions. “Have you noticed how he has been giving potions to Professor Lupin. What exactly is Snape up to?”

“Do you have something to add to the discussion, Mr. Potter.” Snape’s voice cut into their whispered conversation. “The whole class might benefit from your insight.”

“No, Professor.” Harry's voice cracked as he answered. “Just trying to figure out which potion we are working on. I really don’t want to blow up a cauldron today.”

“No, that would be Mr. Finnegan’s job.” Snape drawled as he moved towards the front of the classroom. “Carry on with the potions on the board.”

“I just hope what he is doing is not going to kill Professor Lupin with whatever he is giving him,” Harry continued their whispered conversation.

“I don’t think he is trying to kill him,” Hermione whispered back. “I think he is trying something else entirely.”

_29 March 94_  
_This day could not have been any worse. Hagrid is going to pieces over Buckbeak, I slugged Draco because he is such a prat, and I got kicked out of Divination class. Well, the last part might not be so bad. But the other two could be really bad. I would really like a school year where things are just normal. But, then again, I don’t think I know what a normal school year is anymore..._

Hermione stared at the canopy on her bed. She was going to get expelled for what had happened today. Especially if anyone found out about how she had used the Time-Turner. But, if Professor Dumbledore had told her to do it, then maybe she wouldn’t get expelled.

“Who am I kidding,” Hermione grumbled as she tossed in her bed. “Draco’s father will get me expelled just for touching his precious pureblood son. Nevermind, he is a prat and a bully, and should have been spanked a long time ago.”

Hermione was glad there was no one in the room with her tonight. The conversation she was having with herself would earn her a trip to the Hospital Wing if someone overheard her.

“This is not the way things are supposed to be.” Hermione continued the argument with herself. “Snape wants us to think that Professor Lupin is a werewolf, and Draco and his friends want to think that the facts of their birth make them better than others. There has got to be a way to change this before it tears another world apart.”

Hermione continued to turn the day's events over in her mind as she looked for solutions to problems that didn’t exist yet. Sleep was what she needed, but it was the one thing she couldn't seem to find.

“I’m not going to change the world in one day, as a third year student,” she grumbled to the darkness that surrounded her. “Learning about the past may change the future, but how can I transform what is into what should be? And how am I going to get the boys to help me? It’s not like they stopped me from punching Malfoy today - either time.”

With that question sitting on her heart, Hermione turned on her side, facing Ginny’s empty bed. “This can wait until tomorrow. I just want to sleep and forget right now.”

Hermione finally fell asleep, rubbing the chain of her Time-Turner and muttering about werewolves and large black dogs.

_6 June 94_  
_I guess this is a good way to celebrate the end of term. DADA exam was not as bad as I expected, and I actually felt prepared for it. The adventure at the whopping willow after exams I was NOT prepared for. The discoveries in the Shrieking Shack shook Harry’s world to its core. But, we may have lost more than we gained when this is all over. I never believed in prophecies or divination until tonight, but I think I just witnessed one given and fulfilled in the same day … "It will happen tonight... The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight... the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master..." Professor Trelawney could not have known that Scabbers was actually Peter Petegrew, or that he had been the one to betray Harry’s parents._

“I cannot believe we did that.” Harry beamed as they watched Sirius fly away from the tower on the back of Buckbeak. “I’ve found part of my family again.”

“He’s on the run.” Hermione put her hand on Harry’s shoulder as they watched the pair fly away. “What good does it do to lose him just as you have found him? There is no way that you can spend time with him while he is running.”

“But, I know he is there and he didn’t help kill my parents.” Harry reached up to wipe a tear from his eye. “That transforms what could be. That’s all that matters right now.”

The cells in the tower began to chime.

“We’ve got to hurry, Harry.” Hermione grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him toward the hospital wing. “As much as this has transformed us both, we have to get back before someone notices we have been gone. He said so.”

Hermione spent most of the next few days thinking about how three twists of a Time-Turner could transform the lives of the people around her. She came to three conclusions: Life and school were more interesting if she could keep an eye on Harry and Ron, she hated flying, and she was studying werewolves, their origins, their legends, and their treatment when she got out of school.


	7. Chapter 4 - Awaken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The shock of waking up from the ice is only compounded by the shock of what Steve has to fight. Can Steve find his place in the world he has awakened to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/50272726042/in/dateposted-public/)  
> 

_7/4/2011_  
_You've been asleep Cap. For almost 70 years ...That is not the explanation I wanted. But, it is what I have to live with. They are all gone. Bucky, the Howlers, everyone … gone. Nick Fury seems to think I can still fight, but where is the fight? The war I started fighting in is over. I am struggling just to understand the things in my apartment. According to the calendar, I am 91 years old today …_

Steve watched the fireworks light up Lady Liberty and blew out the candle on the cupcake he was holding. He was struggling and he knew it.

“Come on Rogers,” Steve grumbled as he watched the smoke drift up from the candle wick. “You are alive. You have a great apartment and the war is over. What more do you want?”

A knock on the door pulled Steve out of his musings. _“Who could be at my door at this time of night?”_

Steve looked through the peephole in his door. His late night guest almost made sense. “Director Fury, come in, sir,” Steve beckoned as he opened the door. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Captain,” Nick Fury nodded as he walked through the door. “Came to see if you were ready to go back to work. Are you?”

“What work is there to do, other than beating up bags in the gym?” Steve closed the door as he watched Fury walk further into his space. “The war I was fighting is long over. I don’t fit in anywhere. No one cares to know who Captain America is and Steve Rogers died in the ice 70 years ago. He only left behind a dancing date.”

“Things are coming, Rogers.” Fury placed a package and a folder on the table in Steve’s kitchen. “SHIELD is watching different possible disturbances in this world and beyond. We are going to need your help sooner, rather than later.”

Steve picked the folder up off the table and began to look through the contents. “I’m not sure how I feel about this, sir. I’m not sure I know how to fight an enemy like this.”

“No one is ever sure about how to fight a new enemy, Rogers.” Fury turned and walked back to the door. “But, we are going to need a man that can lead us into that fight. That’s you. Happy birthday,”

Steve watched the door close behind Fury. Taking a deep breath, Steve gave the only answer he could. “Yes, sir.”

_12/25/2011_  
_What is the point in all of this? I train all day. I deal with the scientists and I drown in the world around me. Fury says they are working with Stark to get my equipment adapted to modern times. It’s just not the Stark I knew. It’s his son. Howard was a good man. I just hope his son is more than just the flash we see. Merry Christmas, Buck … I wish you were here._

Steve stood at the window and watched the snow fall. The one thing that hadn’t changed in 70 years was the snow in New York at Christmas. And the Rockettes. But, it wouldn’t be Christmas in New York without the Rockettes. “If only everything could be that simple,” Steve whispered as the snow continued to fall.

He was tired of what his life was becoming. No one could tell him anything about Bucky beyond the fact that his body was never recovered when he fell off that train. Bucky had a marker in Arlington National Cemetery, but it was just a marker on an empty grave. It had taken destroying two heavy bags in the gym to get that information from Fury. “I just need to know where he is,” Steve had grunted between swings at the heavy bag.

“He’s not really there.” Fury had shrugged as he watched the second bag explode with Steve’s punch. “That marker in Arlington is just a marker that says he existed. He fought and he gave his life in that fight. He is not buried beneath it.”

“Then, use all your fancy technology and find out what really happened to him. Find out where his body ended up.” Steve took down the broken, heavy bag and tossed it to the other side of the room. “His body was never found. What makes you so sure he died? Hydra was doing things no one should have been able to do. There are days I still feel like he is waiting for me to find him.”

“He’s gone, Cap.” Fury shrugged as he watched Steve hang another heavy bag on the hook. “Hydra’s gone. Even if they had gotten a hold of him, there was no way Barnes could have survived the fall from that train.”

“You don’t know Bucky.” Steve started to punch the bag in front of him. “Brooklyn boys are made tougher than you think.”

_4/1/2012_  
_April Fools Day. An appropriate day for all of this. Fury says the Tesseract is gone and we need to find it. I’m not sure about any of this. I think I would feel better If I had the Howling Commandos. I really hope Fury knows what he is doing._

“You ready for this, Captain?” Fury looked at Steve as he read through the file he had been handed. “Loki is up to something and we need to find that Tesseract.”

“I’ve been ready for this, Sir.” Steve closed the folder and looked up at Fury. “How did Loki get the Tesseract? How did we get the Tesseract first?”

“Stark found it in the ice when he was looking for you.” Fury shrugged. “We were investigating it as a possible energy source. We need to find it because we don’t know why Loki took it.”

“Do you know how much damage that thing can do? Have you ever thought that you should have left it where you found it?” Steve walked over to the bench where his bag was sitting. “That thing was nothing but trouble seventy years ago and it is nothing but trouble now.”

“It still has to be found.” Fury turned to follow Steve out of the gym. “The past is the past. The future is at stake.”

“I can’t do this by myself, sir.” Steve pushed on the gym door.

“We’re working on that.” Fury sighed.

_4/20/2012_  
_Loki is not like the enemies I have fought before. I’m not sure where Thor stands other than opposite of Loki. Banner reminds me of Dr. Erskin but “the other guy”. I really need him to be on our side. Dr. Jekel - I like and respect, and Mr. Hyde - I’m still not sure. Agent Romanoff I haven’t figured out yet either. Tony Stark is a wild card, a little like his father but not enough. Nick Fury, he almost makes sense. Agent Coulson is gone. New York is a mess. There are still more questions than answers, and I have no idea where this is headed …._

Steve pulled the ice pack from his shoulder and looked around the room. He wasn’t the only one trying to figure out what they had just managed to do. “So, Capsicle, you up for another round?”

“Not yet, Tony.” Steve chuckled as he put the ice on the table behind him. “I think I could take a day or two before I do that again. New York could probably use a little longer.”

“I have a place you can hang out until the next time.” Tony tapped the light glowing in his chest. “It won’t be the place Uptown, but you might like it.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I think I am headed to Washington.” Steve sank into the chair beside where he had been standing. “I have things to check into, and Fury still has things to answer for. I don’t like where things stand right now.”

“Don’t be a stranger,” Tony said, flipping an object at Steve. “It’s a cell phone. Don’t break it.”

Steve smiled and saluted. “Just remember, you're not the boss here.”

“Says who?” Tony smiled and limped out of the room.

_5/20/2012_  
_Well, maybe I can fight in this war. I told Dr. Erskin that I didn’t like bullies. I don’t, no matter what the form. The Avengers are an interesting group of people. It’s going to take some time to get used to working with SHIELD and doing the things they are asking us to do. Tony reminds me of Howard, but I’m not sure how. I still miss Bucky and the boys. Bucky most of all. I hope they found him …_

Steve looked around the Mall and pulled his baseball cap lower on his head. He appreciated the quiet and the anonymity. He missed New York, but he felt more comfortable here.

“I still wish they were here.” Steve looked around the World War II Memorial and sighed. “At least we made it possible for there to be fewer stars here. Hydra didn’t die when I went in the ice, but their influence in this world did.”

Watching children playing in the shadows of the 50 columns that surrounded the water fountain in the middle, Steve continued talking quietly to himself. “We have got to figure out a way to keep this. Without Tony running everything.”

“What was that, Capsicle?” Tony’ voice pulled Steve from his reflections. “I might have a few new toys for you. If you think you can trust me.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Stark.” Steve turned and walked towards the ramp at the lower left of the memorial. “It’s the combination of you and Fury that worries me. Care to join me for a work out?”

“Pepper made me leave the suit at home.” Tony shrugged and followed Steve through the maze of people in the Memorial. “I have a new suit and a few ideas for the shield. If you want them.”

“I don’t want any of this.” Steve took off his sunglasses and looked Tony in the eyes. “I never wanted any of this. But, I will do this because it needs to be done.”

“By the way, there is a soldier you might want to find.” Tony put on his sunglasses and started to walk away. “There are rumors of a soldier that fights like you and has been around as long as you have…”

_7/4/2012_  
_This birthday has been good. Moving to DC has been better. Fireworks for my birthday, even better. I am beginning to hate cell phones. Fury is making me that way. But, I did meet a good guy today. Wonder if I could get him to help with a few things?_

Steve stepped onto the rooftop terrace of the Avalon. His neighbors had been telling him about the fireworks that would happen after dark. They had a good view of the Mall and the monuments where the fireworks show was supposed to happen. Keeping to the edges of the crowd, Steve made his way to the metal tubs full of drinks. Pulling a glass beer bottle from the nearest one, Steve watched the first of the fireworks light up the Washington Monument.

“I’m going to find you all.” Steve saluted the sky, missing his long lost friends.


	8. Chapter 5 - Razbudite (Пробудить - Awaken)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wolf is getting stronger. He may not know who he is but he is having flashes of who he was. One soldier seems to remember him. Will that soldier give him the opportunity to escape?

_Tak kholodno. Vsegda tak kholodno. Mekh - teplo. Mne teplo, kogda ya noshu volka. YA pomnyu, kogda ya noshu volka. Oni vspominayut ikh brata. U menya byl krovnyy brat. Zapishite eto, chtoby vy ne zabyli …_

_Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon_

Flashes of light and snippets on conversations filled his mind. _Zimniy Soldat_ is what they called him when they took him from the cold and ordered him to kill. There had to be more than this. He was a man, not a weapon. His wolf brothers knew him. No one else knew him. As he looked around the cold room, he smiled. It was time to be a wolf.

He could feel his bones crack and reshape as he fell into his new form. She would come and fight with him if he was a wolf. She would tell him he was more than what they asked of him. He moved on silent paws through the cold bunker. He could smell her. She had been here.

“Agent Romanoff, you have a job to do and you will do it. He fights with his pack and he will kill when commanded. But, he fights us when he returns.” The dark voice from his nightmares was attacking her.

“He prefers the wolf because he has control.” The voice he was seeking floated through the closed door.”He trusts his pack more than he trusts us. But, who could blame him.”

“Watch what you say, Agent.” The dark voice snarled. “They are not patient with those who question things.”

“Why should he trust us.” The quiet question cracked through the room. “All he knows of us is orders, pain, and darkness. His pack offers him family and a chance to lead. You will lose him if you further try to break him.”

“He is broken to what we need, a _Zimniy Soldat_.” The dark voice moved away from the door he had touched with his nose. “He will do as he is told, and so will the wolves. Take them back to the mountains. He will be sent for Stark soon enough.”

“He remembers more every time. You cannot hold him forever.” Romanoff reached down to bury her hands in his white ruff as he stepped beside her. “As you can see, he has figured out how to escape this cage. How long do you think it will be before he escapes your other cages?”

He felt his muscles pull and stretch as he forced his human form from his wolf. “I will need my brothers if I am going somewhere. They howl in my head when they are not with me. What is the target?”

“They will stay in the mountains. When you finish your assignment you can return to them, _Zimniy Soldat_ ,” the dark voice in the shadows snapped at him. “You will do as you are told or you will be made to. Do not test me.”

He felt the growl rising in his throat. “You cannot keep me in this cage forever. I know I am more. I will remember. _Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York…_ ”

He continued his chant as he let the wolf leap to the front of his mind, and leap from the shadows. The jolt of electricity dropped him to the floor and his world went black.

_Chelovek volk. Volk cheloveku. Odinokiy, chtoby upakovat'. Pak tp odinokiy. Dukh volka svyazyvayet etogo cheloveka s yego novymi brat'yami. S polnoy lunoy sdelat' yego bol'she, chem on byl. Volk cheloveku. Chelovek k volku. Belyy volk podnimayetsya._

He could feel her hands in his fur as he came back to his body. Her voice was fading as she clung to his ruff. “ _YA vsegda budu s toboy v dukhe. Moya doch' neset etot dukh. Naydi yeye, kogda budesh' gotov osvobodit'sya. Pomnite, kogda vy svobodny._ ”

His brothers howled as he licked her cold face. He nudged her hand with his nose but she no longer responded. “I told her the time for change would come. You have a job to do.” The man with the gun pointed toward the vehicle in the clearing. “You can come back to your pack when your job is done. Just like before.”

The man was lying. He could tell things like that when he let the wolf have his skin. This man was different from the one in the shadows. He padded over to the stream and looked at what the moonlight showed him. His white coat was streaked in the grey that ment blood. His left front leg looked darker than ever. He needed to get her blood off of himself. Sitting, he began to lick the parts that he could reach.

“I need the man, not the wolf.” The pale man waived his gun at him. “I need the _Zimniy Soldat_ not the _Belyy volk_. You can get in the truck on your own two feet or these gentlemen can help you.”

He stood and arched his back as he growled. Baring his teeth, he let his feelings on leaving her be known. A flash of light and he sank back into the dark.

_Sergeant Barnes … Bucky, NOOOOO … the procedure has already started … You are to be the new face of Hydra … put him on ice … Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon_

He shook his head as he looked at the man before him. He could feel the wolf pacing in the back of his mind, but he could not remember why he was here.

“Your job is simple.” the red headed man told him. “Take out Captain America and everyone that stands with him. Hydra is coming and you are to prepare the way.”

“My job is to protect the pack,” he growled as he stared at the red headed man before him. “Protect the pack.”

Crack. He felt his head snap from the force of the man’s palm against his cheek. “I don’t give a damn about the pack. Your job is to eliminate Captain America and anyone that stands in Hydra’s way. Those airships have to get in the air and online.”

He could feel the wolf pull against the chains that held it still inside him. “Eliminate all roadblocks for Hydra. Then, protect the pack.”

“Eliminate all roadblocks for Hydra.” The red headed man turned to walk from the room. “Tomorrow, you will show me you understand what that means.”

_The man on the bridge. Who was he? I knew him … But I knew him … Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century and I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we are going to give it a push. But, if you don’t do your part, I can’t do mine and Hydra can’t give the world the freedom it deserves … Prep him … He has been out of cryofreeze too long … Then wipe him and start over..._

Pain and flashing lights seemed to be his reality. Every time he thought the wolf held memories for him, he was shoved back into the machine where pain was his only existence. He had to find a way out of this. He needed to be the wolf again, but he was frozen in this form until he could finish this mission.

The red headed man thought he had forgotten about the man on the bridge, but the wolf had not. The wolf said he was a brother. He was pack. But, that made no sense. The red headed man said he was the mission. He was to be destroyed so Hydra could protect the world. None of this made sense.

“Time to go.” The soldier stood before him. “Time to do what the director has programmed you to do. Time to complete the mission that will let Hydra protect the world from itself.”

He stood and shook off the worry projected by the wolf inside him. “I am _Zimniy Soldat_ , I will finish the mission I have been given.”

_People are going to die, Buck. I can’t let that happen. Please don’t make me do this … You know me … No, I don’t … Bucky, you’ve known me your whole life. Your name is James Buchanan Barnes … Shut up … I’m not going to fight you. You’re my friend … You’re my mission. You. Are. My. Mission … Then finish it because I’m with you ‘till the end of the line ..._

The water was a shock to his system. Not as big a shock as the memories that flashed through his mind as he dropped from the flying fortress to the river, but a shock all the same. This man, who his wolf called brother, stopped fighting. How does someone make that choice?

He could not shake the resignation in the other man’s eyes as he had asked him to move and not make him fight. The look in his eyes as he had fought over that little chip that changed the loyalty of the ship on which they were fighting. How had he kept fighting after he had been shot and stabbed? How did he stop fighting to rescue his enemy? He could feel the connection to the other soldier. Like they had fought together and not against each other. What would it be like to fight beside him?

 ** _Enough questions._** The wolf moved in his mind. _**Find him and then find the pack. It is time to leave the evil one behind. Find the pack and find her.**_

He dove into the river again looking for the other soldier. He followed the invisible string that seemed to pull him through the murky water. A flash of blue and red showed him his target. Swimming with one arm, he made his way towards his target. Then, he made his way back to the surface. Dragging the other soldier to the shore, he made sure he was breathing before he let the wolf take over once more. _Zimniy Soldat_ needed to disappear. Now, it was time for _Belyy volk_.

_Now. it was time to be free._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Tak kholodno. Vsegda tak kholodno. Mekh - teplo. Mne teplo, kogda ya noshu volka. YA pomnyu, kogda ya noshu volka. Oni vspominayut ikh brata. U menya byl krovnyy brat. Zapishite eto, chtoby vy ne zabyli … - So cold. Always so cold. Fur is warm. I’m warm when I wear the wolf. I remember when I wear the wolf. They remember their brother. I had a blood brother. Write it down so you don’t forget ...
> 
> Zimniy Soldat - Winter Soldier
> 
> Belyy Volk. - White Wolf
> 
> Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York. - Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York
> 
> Chelovek volk. Volk cheloveku. Odinokiy, chtoby upakovat'. Pak tp odinokiy. Dukh volka svyazyvayet etogo cheloveka s yego novymi brat'yami. S polnoy lunoy sdelat' yego bol'she, chem on byl. Volk cheloveku. Chelovek k volku. Belyy volk podnimayetsya. - Man to wolf. Wolf to man. Lone to pack. Pack tp lone. Spirit of the wolf bind this man to his new brothers. With the full moon make him more than he has been. Wolf to man. Man to wolf. The white wolf rises.
> 
> YA vsegda budu s toboy v dukhe. Moya doch' neset etot dukh. Naydi yeye, kogda budesh' gotov osvobodit'sya. Pomnite, kogda vy svobodny. - I will always be with you in spirit. My daughter carries this spirit. Find her when you are ready to be free. Remember when you are free.


	9. Chapter 6 - Rennervate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Journals discovered in the Department of Mysteries sends Hermione on a quest to find the origins of werewolves. Legends of a white wolf in Eastern Europe as well as collection of World War Two era newspapers offer her clues as she continues to research. Will she ever find the answer she is looking for?

_20 June 1999_  
_What am I supposed to do? I have three different letters sitting in front of me. All of them internships, all of them at the Ministry, and all of them something I have dreamed of doing since the War ended. How do I choose? I have offers from The Misuse of Magical Objects, The Department For the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. and The Department of Mysteries. I really want to do all three ..._

Hermione sat at the kitchen table in the Burrow and stared at the three letters in front of her. They were invitations to complete internships at the Ministry of Magic. The letters were from three different departments; each one held an interest to her for different reasons.

“Whacha doing?” Ron’s question startled Hermione out of her fog. “You’ve been staring at those papers since the owls delivered them. What are they?”

“Internship offers.” Hermione sighed. “From three different departments at the Ministry. I don’t know which one to take.”

“Which one do you want?” Ron sat in a chair across the table from her. “I knew as soon as I had the letter from the Auror department. Harry, too. Which departments do you have to choose from?”

“Mysteries, Misuse of Magical Objects, and Control of Magical Creatures.” Hermione taped each letter as she spoke to the department from which it had come. “There are things about each one that makes me want to be there. I have to make this decision in the next two weeks and accept one of them. But, which one?”

“So what is good about each one?” Harry walked into the kitchen, pulled out a chair and had a seat. “I know you have lists. You always have lists.”

“I do not.” Hermione huffed and looked for her beaded bag. “I might have written something down in my notebook. Where is that bag?”

“This bag?” Ron held up her beaded bag. “Mum found it in the cushions of the sofa and asked me to bring it to you. I would offer to look for your notebook, but you have about a hundred books in here.”

“Ronald Weasley, what are you doing looking in my bag?” Hermione reached across the table and snatched her beaded bag from Ron. “Do you have no manners? There had better not be anything missing. If I have to rearrange everything in here, I will …”

“Please, hex him.” Harry started to laugh as he watched Hermione and Ron fight over her bag. “It will be good practice for Auror training. Learning to dodge hexes is a big part of training.”

“If I go to the Department of Mysteries, I get all the research and new discoveries I want, as well as prophecies and myths.” Hermione tapped the letters on the table again. “But then again, Misuse of Magical Objects gives me an opportunity to fix things when they go wrong and teach about the proper use of magical objects like time-turners. I applied to Magical Creatures because of my work with SPEW and Hagrid.”

“Those are good reasons for each department.” Ron fell back into his chair. “I have an idea. Close your eyes.”

“What are you going to do?” Harry watched Ron grab the three letters from the table as Hermione did what he asked. “What are you doing with your wand?”

“Hush.” Ron glared at Harry as he settled the letters on the table in front of him and waved his wand over them. “This is something Mum had us do when we were having trouble deciding on something. Now, ‘Mione, what are the three most important things about this internship for you?”

“Gaining knowledge, protecting others, and making a difference.” Hemrione just let her first thought roll off her tongue. “I don’t see how this is going to help.”

Ron and Harry watched the letter start to slide on the table.

“When you look at your office door, what do you see?” Ron continued to ask questions as he watched the papers. “What do you see on your door in three years? In five years? In ten years?”

“My office door?” Hermione wrinkled her brow. “I don’t expect to have an office for a few years, but after that, my name. In three years, investigator. In five, lead investigator. Ten? I'm not sure yet.”

Harry watched the letters spin around each other on the table until one landed in front of Hermione. “Are you really going to let a spell choose your internship? You are usually a little more careful with life changing decisions.”

“Open your eyes.” Ron sighed as he watched the letters settle. “That’s not how this spell works. It just helps her think and sort through her thoughts. It’s a recommendation not an absolute.”

Hermione picked up the letter in front of her and smiled. “I think the spell may be right. I think I can do the most good and feel like the best me there. I’ll send my acceptance letter in the morning. The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures it is.”

_30 June 2000_  
_Well, I thought the decision a year ago was difficult. This one is even harder. I never knew there could be so many subdivisions in a single department. This is a decision I dreamed I would get to make. This is the start of a career. I don’t want to mess this up. I have spent the last year working in every office I could work . Do I go to Beast, Being, or Spirit division? I am feeling pulled toward the Being division - dealing with werewolves and house elves and other beings somehow just feels right …_

Hermione looked at the parchment on her desk. It was another decision made and another step into a career. She had enjoyed her time in each sub department of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. But her time in the Being division felt the most like home. She had learned that there was so much more to learn there. She was especially interested in the work being done in research in werewolves and their origins.

“So, Granger, have you made up your mind?” Draco leaned against the door to the office she shared with three other interns. “Letters of Intent have to be in by midnight and it is almost dinner time.”

“Yes, I have.” Hermione folded and sealed the parchment in front of her. “But, my decision is none of your business. What are you doing in this part of the Ministry?”

“Running errands for a couple of the wizards in the Wizengamot.” Draco shrugged. “There are a couple of cases coming up that deal with trafficking in magical beasts and beings. I had to get some research materials for those cases.”

“I hope you have gained more experience than just running errands.” Hermione put away her writing materials and spell sealed her desk. “You have how many more years before you can apply to be a barrister?”

“Two more years.” Draco’s shoulders slumped as she walked past him. “The second year interns say that it gets better and you get more responsibilities during the second year. We are supposed to be ready to argue our own cases by the end of the third year.”

“It sounds like you are where you want to be, Draco.” Hermione smiled as she watched him straighten. “A cup of coffee before we Floo? I hear you have plans with a certain Slytherin girl this evening.”

“Idle office gossip?” Draco chuckled. “Hermione Granger, have you loosened your grip on your wand?”

_15 June 2003_  
_The things that get found when two departments get assigned similar cases. Research is the key to solving anything and the collection of journals in the Department of Mysteries can provide clues when nothing else does. Theo was looking for information on some Russian artifacts and I was looking for some information on werewolf origins when we both reached for books on the same shelf. As he pulled on his book, the shelf slid up and revealed a secret shelf. A completely new collection of journals were hidden there. I would have thought they would be stored anywhere but here. They are the journals of Antonin Dolohov. Theo and I are going to start going through them tomorrow …._

Hermione looked up at the sound of books hitting her table. “Hey, Theo. More journals?”

“Another group appeared as we took this set out.” Theo wiped his hands on his robes. “I am hoping it is the last set. It looks to be about 30 years of journals. I’m still trying to figure out how they got to that hidden shelf. But, then again, this is the Department of Mysteries and …”

“Nothing is guaranteed to make sense in the Department of Mysteries,” Hermione finished Theo’s sentence. “It looks like they start somewhere around 1935 and move forward. I had to look up some translation spells before I could even begin to figure anything out.”

“I’ll take the next one in the pile.” Theo reached for the journal on the top of the stack in front of Hermione. “My boss wants me to look for references to some relics that went missing during the Muggle wars in this time period. I hope there is something useful in all of this.”

“I think I may have found a clue for my research.” Hermione began taking notes on the parchment beside the journal she was reading. “He is talking about spells that affect wolves and the possibilities of making a ‘white wolf not ruled by the moon’.” But, in the next sentence he talks about Hydra and how his work will help make a greater world.”

“Hydra. Isn’t that a beast that was part of Greek mythology.” Theo stopped reading his journal and raised an eyebrow. “Cut off one head and two take its place? How would a mythical creature be tied to a wolf?”

“I have no idea.” Hermione continued to puzzle over the text in front of her. “Is he talking about a mythical beast or an organization? Because now he is talking about the work the Director wants him to complete.”

Hermione closed the journal she was looking in and reached for the next one on the pile in front of her. “I hope this one has more information than the last one. Are these in order? This one starts with January of 1944. The one I just had ended with December of 1939. What do you have?”

Theo flipped back to the beginning of the journal he had been reading. “January 1940. Maybe he kept more than one year in a journal. This is the problem with being the person to find the new mystery. You have to catalog the pieces before you can draw any conclusions.”

“And, you may not ever find all the answers.” Hermione sighed and turned back to her reading. “The sooner we finish reading these journals, the sooner we can get back to the cases we are actually supposed to be working on.”

_1 June 2005_  
_I have finally convinced my supervisor that this is important. The mention of a Muggle turned werewolf without a bite is something that has to be investigated. The entries are from the 1940s and some things Dolohov writes make no sense. Who is Hydra? How can a werewolf change at times other than the full moon? What is the spell he created? What potions were used? Did the soldier survive? I need to brush up on my translation spells it seems. If I am going to figure this out I am going to have to travel, read, and even ask questions that I may not want the answers to …_

Hermione looked around her office at the stacks of parchment. Those stacks were the physical manifestation of a year of questions without answers, and a twist to how the world believed a werewolf was made. “And, I still don’t have any answers,” Hermione muttered as she looked through her collection of copies of Dolohov’s journals. “I still have no clues as to what Hydra is or what spell he used. All I have is tiny pieces of a huge puzzle and nothing fits together.”

“Hey, ‘Mione, can you come look at this?” Harry’s voice floated from a silver stag standing in the doorway to her office. “I fell into a bomb cellar from the 1940s when I was on a case today. Some of the artifacts that were brought back might help you with your research. Newspapers and letters from soldiers, plus some medallions and patches. We are in the big office in the Muggle Objects vault.”

Hermione grabbed a pad of paper and her favorite Quick Quill. “Please don’t let this be another wild dragon chase. I know he is trying to help, but everytime I take a step forward, I end up sliding three steps back. At the rate I am going, I am going to end up in the United States to search MACUSA archives. I have travel requests into Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria as it is. I need answers and not more questions.”

Three hours later, Hermione walked out of the Muggle Objects vault with at least one answer. Hydra was an organization that tried to come to power during the muggle Second World War, and fought as a part of the Nazi military structure. The newspapers were full of articles about the war and the enemies that Great Britain and her allies had fought. They also had articles about a particular group of soldiers that chased Hydra across the continent: Captain American and the Howling Commandos. But, that answer brought up more questions for her to find answers to.

“Hey, Harry.” Hermione leaned against the wall as she waited for the next lift to arrive. “Thanks for the research materials. It at least gives me a direction for part of the research. Now, all I have to do is find a way to undo the spell that is hiding Dolohov’s spell in those journals. There are still passages that no translation spell will untangle when we look at the originals.”

“Anytime. I’m glad some good came out of falling in that cellar.” Harry pushed his glasses back up his nose. “I’ll talk to the Aurors that just got back from a case in the Carpathian Mountains. I heard they found some strange letters and a set of journals from the same time period as yours. One of the Aurors said the villages talked about their parents seeing a white wolf in the forest.”

“Why would they mention that?” Hermione smiled as the lift arrived. “There have always been wolves in the Carpathian Mountains. What was so special about this wolf?”

“Village legends say the wolf was solid white except for one of its front legs.” Harry smirked as he watched Hermione walk into the lift. “The wolf’s entire left front leg is solid silver. Not grey, ‘Mione, but silver. Some villagers even said the wolf can still be seen in the woods when he is needed.”


	10. Chapter 7 - Hunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve begind his search for answers as he recovers from his first enounter with the Winter Soldier. He thinks he has found the true identity of this new enemy but the search has created more questions than answers. Can Steve unravel the mystery before he faces him again?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many apologize for the delay in publishing this new chapter … Real life as a teacher adjusting to remote learning/teaching and a dentist visit put the new chapter a little behind.

_7/4/2014_   
_Not the way I had planned to spend my birthday, in the hospital with a new mystery to solve. Sam tells me I can escape this place in a few more days. “On your left” has become a common phrase between us. I’ll be happy when I can move without feeling every move. Dr. Erskin promised it would be harder for me to be hurt and I would heal faster, but falling out of the sky after being shot and stabbed by your best friend means rehab before returning to active duty. Don’t know if some parts will ever heal …_

Steve looked around the hospital room and shook his head. “Shouldn’t even be alive based on what everyone has said,” he muttered to himself as he tried to change his position. “I guess there are advantages to being a super-soldier. I wish my ribs had gotten the memo.”

“In a hurry to go somewhere, Cap?” Nick Fury leaned against the door and watched Steve. “We need to talk about why you sunk three large airships into the Potomac. I know the director wasn’t the man we were led to believe he was, but that was a lot of money and manpower you destroyed.”

“I’m more interested in the director’s connection to Hydra and Bucky than the ships that sank.” Steve laid back on the bed and closed his eyes. “Did he leave anything behind that we can trace? Anything that would tell us how Bucky became the Winter Soldier?”

“Slow down, Cap.” Fury pushed off the door frame and walked towards Steve’s bed. “Romanoff is still sifting through what we have found. I am busy cleaning house with SHIELD, and you are still in a hospital bed with broken ribs, gunshot wounds, and a knife wound or two. Your number one priority right now is getting out of that bed and back into fight shape. This isn’t finished.”

“I understand, sir.” Steve closed his eyes and tried to take a deep breath. “According to the docs, I’ll be out of here in a few days. I’ll be back to training a few days after that. I need the information. I need to figure out how Bucky figures into all of this.”

“Bucky Barnes died in World War Two.” Fury sank deeper into the chair. “The man you fought has no memory of you, and there is no guarantee that he is the man you think he is. We still have no idea what was done to him to make him like you.”

“The man I fought on that airship is Bucky Barnes.” Steve turned his head to stare at Fury. “We grew up together, and we fought together. I don’t know what happened to him, but he was fighting against it as he was fighting me. I need to find him.”

“The Winter Soldier is long gone, Cap. We have bigger enemies to find and destroy.” Fury stood and headed for the door. “Get some rest. The fight will come to us again, and you need to be ready. No matter who you are fighting.”

_8/4/2014_   
_What happened to him? Where is he now? All I seem to be able to sketch is his eyes over that mask. How haunted and lost he looked. What happened to Bucky when he fell off that train? Why didn’t I go back and look for him?_

Steve looked at the piles of paper scattered around the table in the conference room of the Avengers compound. Years of records and computer printouts that were recovered from the underground lab that Natasha had found.

“None of this makes sense.” Steve grumbled as he dropped the papers he had been reading on the table. “This is a jumble of legends, magic, and nonsense. Creating a werewolf and a supersoldier. This makes no sense.”

“But, it might explain something I found in my mother’s effects.” Natasha Romanoff walked into the room and laid a battered book on top of the pile Steve had just placed on the table. “She left me a few things in a safe deposit box in a lost bank in Moscow. It looks like she may have been involved in the training of the first Winter Soldier.”

“Your mother?” Steve watched pain flicker in her eyes. “I thought you were raised in an orphanage before you were trained?”

“Everyone has to come from somewhere.” Natasha shrugged and walked over to the bank of windows that looked out over the compound. “Not everyone wants to uncover their pasts, Steve. Some of us have enough to deal with in the present.”

“What exactly did she put in this book?’ Steve picked up the journal and began to look through the pages. “I’m guessing this is written in Russian since it looks like nothing I have ever seen before. Do you mind if we get it translated?”

“Already done it.” Natasha dropped another book on the table.” Couldn’t sleep last night, so I started reading and writing. It’s a bunch of nonsense and suspicion. Like everything else in this whole mess.”

“Are you sure about that?” Steve laid down the journal he had been holding and picked up the book she had just set on the table.” There are always a few kernels of truth buried in every fairy tale. What does she mean by your wolf is waiting for you?”

“That’s what I mean about nonsense and suspicion.” Natasha shrugged and continued to stare out the windows. “She talks about a wizard named Dolohov who turned a man into a wolf and an American soldier who became as cold and hard as the tundra in winter.”

“Do you have another explanation for how a man I thought died showed up in DC and tried to kill me?” Steve laid the translation of the journal back on the table with the original. “So now we need to figure out who Dolohov was and what his connection to Hydra is. The answers are somewhere in all of these papers. We have to find it.”

“Are you sure you want the answers you are looking for, Captain?” Natasha's whisper seemed to melt into the night.

“No, but I need them.”

_9/4/2014_   
_I keep hearing a wolf howl in my dreams. I swear it is coming from the Park, but everyone thinks I am imagining things. There are no wolves in Rock Creek Park. But, then, his face still haunts me too. The look on his face as I refused to fight him. Where are you, Buck? What happened to you? Why do you have a Russian accent? Ronamoff may hold the cards I need. If she will even talk to me …_

Steve watched the sunrise as he ran along the paths in Rock Creek Park. The time he spent running every morning was helping him piece through the mystery that had taken over his life. The pieces seemed to flow and move to the pounding of his feet. The journal Natasha had translated appeared to hold the most significant clues and his biggest mystery.

Steve had figured out that Bucky had received Hydra’s version of the supersoldier serum when he was first captured. According to Natasha’s mother, that allowed him to survive the fall and snow until Hydra soldiers found him. He still needed to figure out who Anton Dolohov was and why he wanted to connect Bucky to a pack of wolves.

Steve slowed his pace as he ran out of Rock Creek Park and around the Zoo. He had several hills to conquer before he got back to his apartment building. There had to be more in that journal than what he was seeing. Natasha’s mother mentioned the men in the shadows, the director and the doctor as well as Dolohov. He needed more pieces before he was ever going to figure out this enigma.

Steve let the feel of his feet hitting the pavement, lull him into not thinking as he finished his morning run. There were more papers and journals to look through as soon as he got to the conference room. This was a mystery he needed to solve, not just for Bucky, but for himself.

_10/4/2014_   
_I need to get out of the city. I need to go home. I need to find Bucky. I need to find answers. Romanoff gave me a few clues, but they don’t answer the questions I had; they just add more questions to the puzzle. The wolves don’t howl in my dreams anymore, but I still see how confused he was as we were fighting. I’m tired of waking up screaming. Sam says it will get better over time but I can’t help feeling like he is out there and waiting for me to find him …_

Steve stepped out of his cab and looked around the brownstones that lined the street. He had intentionally chosen to rent an apartment in Brooklyn instead of taking Tony up on his offer for the use of an apartment in Stark Tower. He felt like he needed to go back to the beginning, where his friendship with Bucky began. He had brought the journals with him and planned to use some of his time to reread them.

Steve dropped his bag by the door and walked into the living room of the apartment he had rented. He almost dropped his phone when it rang.

“Yes, sir?”

“Are you in New York, Cap?”

“Yes, sir. I decided to see if I could find any clues where it all began.”

“You have an appointment in Manhattan tomorrow morning.”

“Fury, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“You have an appointment to talk to a wizard about Dolohov tomorrow morning in Manhattan.”

“A wizard, sir?”

“You wanted to know who Dolohov was and you should not be surprised that wizards exist. I’ll text you the address and name when you hang up.”

“I think I am going to need more than just a name and address, sir.”

“Check your email, Cap. You have just been cleared for more information. Not that I agree with this wild goose chase, but if it helps clear Hydra pieces out of SHIELD, you can keep on doing it.”

“I want to know what happened to Bucky. He is out there now. He saved my life, and I need to bring him home.”

“Not every soldier comes home, Cap.”

“I left him behind, sir.”

“No, you didn’t. The Winter Soldier is not your friend.”

“I’m not giving up.”

“Just go to the meeting tomorrow, Cap.”

“Yes, sir.”

Steve hung up his phone and set it on the table beside the couch. Fury’s phone call had not been helpful. Instead of helping him sort through the pieces he already had. Maybe the meeting tomorrow would help.

Steve decided to not think about his mystery for the rest of the day. “Time to get settled in and organized.” He grumbled as he set his bag on the bed to unpack. “You are not going to find Bucky any faster if you don’t get your act together. Come on, Buck, give me a clue or two…”

_11/4/2014_   
_Went back to the old neighborhood. I don’t know what I was looking for, but I didn’t find any more information that will help. Ma always said to start back at the beginning when you are stuck on a question, but what if the start where it all began doesn’t exist anymore? The people are gone and the places have changed. But, I know I saw flashes of my old friend in his eyes and they say he pulled me out of the Potomac when we fell. None of this makes sense …_

Two weeks in Brooklyn and three trips to MACUSA headquarters in Manhattan had only made the mystery stranger. It had also added a whole new set of players he had no idea existed. At least he had one answer, Anton Dolohov was a disgraced wizard who was rumored to be trying to create a werewolf that could be controlled by other wizards, not the moon.

“Why the long face?” Natasha’s question brought Steve out of the fog he had been in currently. “You have been staring at the paper for the last twenty minutes. You have got to let go of this idea. The Winter Soldier is a legend, and he is not your friend, no matter what her journal says.”

“It is more than just her journal now.” Steve sighed and laid the papers he had been holding on the table. “It is the boot prints that turn into paw prints on the banks of the Potomac that no one can explain. It is the fact that he looks just like Bucky. He hesitated when I called him Bucky on the airship. Bucky is the Winter Soldier; I can feel it.”

“But, can you prove it?” Natasha picked up a stack of pictures and began to flip through them. “Or are you just tilting at windmills because you want it to be true. Why do you have pictures of the wolves in Yellowstone?”

“Because there have been rumors of a man living with one of the packs in the park.” Steve shrugged and picked up the translated journal. “Based on what is in this journal, Dolohov placed a spell on the Winter Soldier so that he could become a wolf. A werewolf without fear of the moon is what he was trying to create.”

“Werewolves only exist in horror movies and legends.” Natasha laid the pictures back on the table. “Old wives tales and stories told to scare children. The Winter Soldier is a legend of Hydra. Why are you chasing this so hard?”

“Because the man I fought on that airship was a man I thought died in the dead of winter during World War Two.” Steve took a picture out of the stack Natasha had been looking at before. “Anton Dolohov claims to have made an American soldier into a werewolf whose prosthetic arm transformed with him. Your mother wrote about the same thing. A wounded American soldier that was programmed to serve Hydra and who could transform into a solid white wolf with one silver leg.”

Steve laid two grainy pictures he had chosen out of the pile on the table in front of Natasha. “Can you explain this? A man that looks like the man I fought standing in a circle of wolves at Yellowstone and a white wolf…”

“With a single, silver leg.”

_1/4/2015_   
_A new year and I still have no idea what I am doing. Now there are whispers of a man living among the wolves in Yellowstone. A man with shaggy, dark hair and a silver leg. But, there are also rumors of a solid white wolf with a silver front leg. I have fuzzy pictures that could be both of those things. I thought I was dreaming when I saw a white wolf walk away from me on the banks of the Potomac. What is going on here? Why do I dream of Bucky and the wolf walking the same path, just out of reach but never out of sight. I need to go to Yellowstone soon._

“Sir, I need to go to Yellowstone.” Steve stood across the room from Nick Fury. “I need to see if those satellite pictures show a man living among the wolves. It could be the piece that solves this mystery.”

“I need you to leave this mystery and get ready for deployment.” Fury shook his head and handed a folder to Steve. “There are signs that Loki is stirring trouble in Europe again. You and Tony are meeting Thor in London at 0800 tomorrow. Time to put down the magnifying glass and pick up the shield.”

“With all due respect, sir.” Steve took a deep breath so he could plead his case, “between the journal, what I have learned from MACUSA, and the pictures from Yellowstone, I am close to figuring everything out. If all of this fits together in the way I think it does; we can bring Bucky home and end his time as the Winter Soldier.”

“The mission comes before personal pursuits, Cap.” Fury shook his head. “Even if this is who you think it is, there may be too much damage. You may not be able to fix it and bring him home.”

“I have to try.” Steve let his shoulder slump. “He never gave up on me. I can’t give up on him either.”


	11. Chapter 8 - Obnaruzheniye (обнаружение - Finding)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Walking away after dragging his wounded enemy from the water, the wolf pushes Bucky to hide from everyone. The wolf seems to think one enemy is park of their pack and another is their future. Finding a new pack means safety and safety means answers. Will the wolf let him find his memories and his future if they leave DC and try to find home?

_He is pack. Can’t leave him to the others. Must protect the pack. He is pack._

The wolf watched the strange man as he laid on the ground. He knew he needed to run to protect himself but he could not move from where he was watching.

“Found him!”

The wolf slipped deeper into the tall grass as he watched over the man. He watched as more men surrounded the man and called for help. He stopped his retreat as a woman joined the men by the river.

“Take him to the ambulance.” Her voice carried across the grass and water. “Careful how you lift him.”

He knew that voice. The smell was not right, but the voice was familiar. He was safe with her. Now he needed to find the rest of his pack. He would come back for them later.

Turning his back on the familiar voices, the white wolf silently slipped away from the river’s edge.

_His scent is here. He comes here. We know him. He is a brother. Not wolf, but not man. He could be pack. We have fought with him. And her … I am supposed to know her, too._

Bucky listened to the wolf speak in his head as he watched people in the park. He remembered pulling Captain America out of the river and dragging him to the shore. He remembered watching for him to breathe and transforming into the wolf as he waited for others to find the soldier on the river bank.

Soon he would have to let the wolf have control and return to the den he had found for the night. Bucky did not know why he felt pulled to Rock Creek Park, but the wolf insisted that there were answers to be found here. All he had found so far was a place to get food and a place to sleep as a wolf.

The wolf insisted that the soldier they had pulled from the river came to the park often because his scent was on the trails. The wolf insisted that they had fought side by side with the soldier like they fought with the pack. The wolf also insisted that they needed to find their pack. Bucky needed to figure out who he was beyond what his handlers decided he needed to know. It was nice to have options and control of his own life.

“We can’t stay here much longer, Wolf.” He muttered to himself. “I may not remember much, but being a wolf in the middle of a city is not the way to not be noticed. We need to find a pack and a better place to hide.”

“ _We need to sing to him one more night. Invite him to the pack again before we leave._ ” Bucky heard the wolf answer him. “ _We need to find a new den away from others. He will come when it is time._ ”

“I need to know who he is and why he is a shadow in my mind.” Bucky continued his muttered conversation. “And the woman, who is she and why am I drawn to her?”

“ _He is pack. He is a blood brother_.” The wolf’s voice had faded to a whisper. “ _She is what was promised. Mamochka promised us when we lost her._ ”

“Her daughter?” Bucky struggled to remember the time the wolf was talking about. “I only remember flashes of red hair and fierce eyes, but there was something about the woman that we saw on the river’s edge.”

“ _She is what was promised._ ” The wolf pushed to have his turn in the air. “ _Mamochka will make sure she comes to us when it is time. We need to sing to him and then we need to find our pack. Can’t you feel the pull from the west?_ ”

“Tonight is the last night.” Bucky grumbled as he let go of his hold on the world so the wolf could take his place. “This place may be full of wolves on two legs, but we are not safe here. We need to find our way home.”

_Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon … Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon … Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon._

Bucky woke up in a full panic as the words played through his mind. The train car was dark, and the people around him were sleeping. Running his hands through his hair, Bucky tried to slow his heart and his thoughts.

He had used the computers in the public library to research the best place to find wolves in North America. Then, he researched the best way to get to them. A slow train tour from DC to Yellowstone seemed like a good idea when he had bought the ticket with the card he found in his back pocket. He did not remember how he got it, but he was going to use it for as long as it would work.

The wolf was restless. He could feel it pacing under his skin and in his mind the longer he had to keep from transforming. “Patience old friend. We will be able to run with our brothers again soon.”

Bucky continued to mutter to himself as he made his way to the back of the train. Stretching his legs helped clear the fog of the nightmare that had brought him out of his sleep. Every nightmare was filled with the whispered words that seemed to steal all his memories. The nightmares seemed to come more often when he tried to remember pieces of his life before the wolf.

“Sir, are you feeling alright.” The steward of the dining car placed a gentle hand on Bucky’s back. “I can call for the medic if you are not feeling well.”

Bucky tried not to jump at the steward’s touch. “I’ll be fine, Just had a bad dream. Could I get a glass of water or something?”

“Of course, sir.” The steward pointed to the nearest table. “Just have a seat and I’ll bring you back something. Are you sure you are alright?’

“I will be.” Bucky dropped his body into the chair. “Too many memories tonight. Makes it hard to sleep.”

“Military service?” The steward placed a glass of water and a tumbler of amber liquid on the table in front of Bucky. “I spent a few years in the desert with the Army, and I have nights where it is easier to stay awake than face the memories that rise when I sleep.”

“Something like that.” Bucky lifted the glass of amber liquid in a silent toast. “To those who we can remember and those we can’t. Maybe someday.”

Bucky sipped the whisky as he watched the steward walk away. “We will be free to roam with a pack soon, my friend. Patience is a virtue of the hunter.”

A soft growl from deep in his throat was the wolf’s only answer.

_Slushat'. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor'ba. Skoro uvidimsya...Chelovek volk. Volk cheloveku. Odinokiy, chtoby upakovat'. Pak tp odinokiy. Dukh volka svyazyvayet etogo cheloveka s yego novymi brat'yami. S polnoy lunoy sdelat' yego bol'she, chem on byl. Volk cheloveku. Chelovek k volku. Belyy volk podnimayetsya...Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York...YA vsegda budu s toboy v dukhe. Moya doch' neset etot dukh. Naydi yeye, kogda budesh' gotov osvobodit'sya. Pomnite, kogda vy svobodny....Zimniy Soldat...Belyy volk...Pomnite, kogda vy svobodny….Pomnite, kogda vy svobodny…._

The wolf howled with his brothers in his new pack. He could feel the ties to his pack brothers on the others mountains as well as the ones who howled beside him. He had let the soldier have the body as they had traveled from the park in the city to the freedom of the mountains with these brothers.

There was a change in the wind. His pack brothers seemed more restless as the days passed. They had accepted him into the pack and treated his soldier as if he was another member of the pack. They seemed to be letting him move up the ranks day by day. Soon he would be the alpha of another pack. Then, he could call the soldier’s brother again. He could call for her too. _Mamochka’s_ promise was coming.

Soon it would be time to let the soldier remember. Soon it would be time to catch the magic in the wind. They would be here soon. He could feel it.

With a final howl, the white wolf with the silver leg led his new pack back into the trees to get ready for the fight that was to come.

_Patience is a virtue of the hunter, my friend … Our prey is coming … Just a little bit longer and then we will be free ..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations (through Google Translate)
> 
>  _Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon_ \- Longing, rusted, seventeen, daybreak, furnace, nine, benign, homecoming, one, freight car
> 
>  _Slushat'. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor'ba. Skoro uvidimsya._ \- Listen. Heal. Train. Fight. I will see you soon.
> 
>  _Teper' on govorit na pravil'nom yazyke. On gotov._ \- He speaks in the proper tongue now. He is ready
> 
>  _Chelovek volk. Volk cheloveku. Odinokiy, chtoby upakovat'. Pak tp odinokiy. Dukh volka svyazyvayet etogo cheloveka s yego novymi brat'yami. S polnoy lunoy sdelat' yego bol'she, chem on byl. Volk cheloveku. Chelovek k volku. Belyy volk podnimayetsya._ \- Man to wolf. Wolf to man. Lone to pack. Pack to lone. Spirit of the wolf binds this man to his new brothers. With the full moon make him more than he has been. Wolf to man. Man to wolf. The white wolf rises.
> 
>  _Zimniy Soldat_ \- Winter Soldier
> 
>  _Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York._ \- Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York
> 
>  _YA vsegda budu s toboy v dukhe. Moya doch' neset etot dukh. Naydi yeye, kogda budesh' gotov osvobodit'sya. Pomnite, kogda vy svobodny._ \- I will always be with you in spirit. My daughter carries this spirit. Find her when you are ready to be free. Remember when you are free.
> 
>  _Belyy volk_ \- White wolf
> 
>  _Mamochka_ \- Mother (nickname)


	12. Chapter 9 - Accio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione's research project has her running in circles and around the world. Can she finally figure out Dolhov's journals and the mystery of the white wolf?

_20 June 2010_   
_This would be so much easier if Dolhov was still alive. I think I have finally found the cipher I need to see the actual text of the spell. It is looking more and more like Dolhov’s work created a different kind of werewolf that the ones we have always known. Maybe this research can still be helpful. I hope he was only successful once ..._

Hermione looked around at the plies of parchment that filled the table in front of her. She knew from her experiences with remus and Bill that a person had to be bitten to become a werewolf. That’s what all the lore said. So, how did Dolhov create a werewolf from an injured soldier.

His journal was not helpful. The text shifted every time she thought she had the translation spell perfected. She had tried description spells as well. Nothing made the words stay where she could read them for more than a day or two. Even Theo was stumped by the journals. He had spent more time researching where the journals had come from rather than what they said. “Bloody hell, Dolhov. What did you do to that poor man? Did you really make a werewolf without a werewolf and how did you keep him sane during the full moon?”

_30 May 2011_   
_I have fallen down a pixie hole. The stacks of research get higher and the answers get fewer. I hope this next trip will give me some more answers. I would love to catch a glimpse of the white wolf those village legends keep talking about. What connects all of this together?_

Hermione growled out her frustration as she laid her quill on the parchment. She was in the lobby of a small hostel in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, watching for wolves and chasing old wives tales. She had an appointment to speak with one of the village elders in the morning. Her hope was that she would remember the Dolhov or anyone strange in the woods around the end of the Muggle Second World War. The village had survived reigns of terror from different governments, both Muggle and Magical, during the last hundred years and most of the older residents turned away from her when they sae her coming with her pad a quill.

“Pardon, miss.” A quiet voice jarred Hermione from her thoughts. “Elder Nemov wishes to see you tonight. He wishes for you to join him at the edge of the forest. I will take you. The wolves will howl for their missing brother under the full moon tonight.”

“Let me put my things in my room.” Hermione looked at the small boy who had spoken. “It would be my honor and privilege to join Elder Nimov. I have not heard wolves howl before.”

Twenty minutes later, Hermione and her escort joined the elder at the edge of the forest. “Elder Nimov, she has come to hear the pack. I tried to remember the story to tell, but I forgot.”

“It is fine, Yakov.” The elder ran his hand through the boy’s hair. “Miss Granger and I will sit here and listen for the wolves and I will tell her the story. Go home, little mischief maker. I will come for tea with your mother tomorrow.”

“Good night, sir, miss.” Yakov bowed to both adults and turned back to the village.

“Elder Nimov, thank you for taking the time to speak to me.” Hermione whispered as she followed the older man to a pair of boulders. “I have never heard wild wolves howl before. I have been told that this is a special pack. What makes them so special?”

“This pack is missing a brother.” Elder Nimov placed his hands on his thighs as he lowered himself onto the boulder. “When I was a boy, strange men would come to the forest every few months to drag a white wolf away. His brothers would howl until a man with a silver arm was brought back and left at the edge of the woods. My brother told me he once saw the man melt into a white wolf with one grey leg.”

“He saw the man melt into a wolf?” Hermione asked as she watched the elder. “Aren’t white wolves unusual in these mountains? How long ago did he see this?”

Elder Nimov patted Hermione’s leg as he looked into the forest. “So many questions. Brother Anatol saw the white wolf when we were children. He had a very vivid imagination and spent many hours cleaning stalls for his stories. It was probably just an old wolf who was no longer good for the pack.”

“But, why do they sound so sad?” Hermione asked as she heard the first notes rise from the woods. “I feel lost when I hear them. What could cause a pack to sound like that?”

“The howls changed about six months ago. No one has seen the white wilf with the silver leg since the howls changed.” Elder Nimov smiled sadly as he listen to the wolf chorus fill the night air. “We will know when the lost have returned. My father said there was a wizard who created this pack and brough the white wolf here after the war. Father also said there was a red-headed woman that could control the wolf when others could not. But she disappeared not long after the pack came to be.”

Hermione sat on the boulder and listened to the howls as they continued to fill the night. She had gotten a few answers tonight, but she had so many more the find.

_30 June 2013_   
_I am going to have to go to the United States. I have chased this legend across half the world and now there are rumors of a man living among the wolves in the western United States. There have also been rumore of a solid white wolf with a single silver leg in the same territory as the man. It sounds almost like the soldier wolf in Dolhov’s journals. I guess it is time to send an owl to my counterparts at MACUSA and get the proper permissions. They are not going to believe me. I don’t know that anyone believes me …_

Hermione carefully packed her copies of Dolohov’s journals from the 1940s in her beaded bag. She had finally found the cipher for Dolohov’s transformation spell in one of his journals from the 1950s and she was even more determined to figure out how he had made it work. She also needed to find out how long the ‘soldier wolf’ had survived after his transformation. Like always, there were three more questions for the one she finally had an answer to.

“Earth to Hermione.” Ginny’s voice startled her as he continued to pack her bag. “I have been talking to you for the last ten minutes and all you have done is grunt. It is worse than trying to talk to my brothers at a family dinner.”

“Sorry, Gin.” Hermione stopped putting books in her bag. “I was just thinking about all the things I need to get done in the next month. I have a week in Washington DC to try to find answers in their archives before I head west. I just want answers to this mystery.”

“How long have you been working on werewolves?” Ginny asked as she flopped back on Hermione’s bed. “I remember Harry talking with you about it five years ago. I thought werewolves were created by other werewolves and controlled by the moon.’

“As far as we have been able to find, most of them are.” Hermione joined Ginny on her bed. “But then there's this one that Dolohov claims to have created. One he claims to have created who has been given an artificial limb that transforms with him and who has been bonded to an actual wolf pack.”

“But, why are you going to the United States instead of back to the Carpathian Mountains?” Ginny turned to face Hermione. “You found some answers there and in Germany. What is sending you across the pond for a month?”

“Because MACUSA has archives from that time and connections to the military and SHIELD which means more information about Hydra.” Hermione sighed. “There are also rumors of a man living with a wolf pack near Yellowstone. That pack is also rumored to have a solid white wolf with a silver leg. Sound familiar?”

“Now I see. You have run out of dragons to chase her, so you are going to chase werewolves across the pond.” Ginny let out the breath she had been holding. “Are you sure you want to do this? This research project started out as a way to help people like Remus, Bill and Lavender. Now it seems to be an obsession with no end.”

“One way or another, I will have more answers at then end of the month.” Hermione got off the bed and walked to her closet. “Between Kinglsey and Percy, I have appointments with wizards, scholars and shamans across the country. One answer at a time, that is how you solve a mystery. If I can solve this mystery, there are so many people that we will be able to help in the future.”

_20 June 2014_   
_Well, that trip was not as productive as I had hoped. I have met every type wizard or witch you can imagine and a superhero or two. But, still no answers and more questions. I am going back again in a few months, but I need to come back to my base and pull together the research that I do have. I still haven’t figured out everything in Dolhov’s diary. I know the answers are in there._

Hermione looked at the stacks of parchment in her corner of the research room. She had collected more stories from Elder Nimov’s village and from the contacts she had created in the United States. Ginny’s questions from months ago still chased thought around in her head. Why could she not give this up? Would it do anyone any good even if she found the man with the silver arm or the white wolf with the silver leg?

She needed to do more research. She needed to analyze the research she already had. Could she have too much information? She had ever had this much trouble solving a problem. She had finally given up on a complete translation of Dolhov’s journals. There were other resources that were more reliable.

“Hermione, it’s time to go home.” Theo walked toward her between the tables in the research room. “You have been in this room and at this table for ten hours. There is research and then there is pounding your head into a brick wall. Go home.”

“I think I may have found something.” She muttered as she turned another page of the journal she was looking in. “This was with Dolhov’s journals but it is written by someone else and it is not enspelled. A simple Russian to English spell made it readable.”

“Hermione, put a marker where you are and go home.” Theo put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “The journal will be here in the morning and you have another trip to get ready for. The Minister has said you can go back to America at the end of the month. He suggested the West Coast this time. There are actual wolves in the mountains and forest of the American West.”

“There are wolves and legends in the Carpathian Mountains, too.: Hermione sighed and closed the journal she had been reading. “I went there and all I came back with was memories from an old man’s childhood and haunting wolf songs. What good will it doto explore the wilds of the American West?”

“Just go.” Theo lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. “Get out of this place and look for something beside the origin of werewolves for a few hours. Maybe things will look different in the morning.”

“But, what if I missed something.” Hermione could feel the tear trying to fall from her eyes. “Remus is lost to us. Bill worries with the rise of the moon and Lavendar will never leave that horrible ward at St. Mungos. I have to find an answer for them.:

“Not today, Mione. Go home.”

_20 January 2014_   
_There has been a spotting of a white wolf with a silver front leg in the wilds of Western America. There have also been reports of a man living with the same pack of wolves. There has to be a connection. The diary said the soldier had to be tied to a pack for the sake of his wolf. I need to see this pack and talk to the shaman that sent me the owl …_

Hermione watched the newscast on the television as she drank her nightly cup of tea. The American West was covered in snow. There was no way she was going to be able to go to Yellowstone in this weather. According to her research, the best time to see wolves in Yellowstone was in the late spring and early summer. She needed to talk to the Minister about when she traveled to the United States again.

The letter and photos delivered by a very tired owl last week had fueled her determination to get to Yellowstone. The pictures were blurry but one showed a dark haired man walking in the middle of a pack of wolves through the forest. The other showed the same pack being led by a solid white wolf. There was something in the stance of the wolf and the man that was similar. This is where she needed to go next. A trip to the American West in the spring might just be the answer to her research problems.


	13. Chapter 10  - Winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is haunted by dreams of Bucky and howling wolves. He needs to find the man he thinks is Bucky and get ansers to his questions. After spending the winter months collecting evidence and begging to go investigate, Steve has arrived in Yellowstone and finds someone he did not expect. Can this new player help him solve his mystery?

_2/15/2015_  
_He is never going to let me go to Yellowstone. No one but Natasha even believes that he is Bucky. I know what I saw. I know what I have heard in the park. The man I fought in the airship was the same man I fought beside years ago. I have known him most of my life. How do I convince the others that the Winter Soldier is actually Bucky Barnes?_

Steve woke up in a cold sweat, screaming. He was having nightmares again. It was always the same thing. They were trying to hang on to the train and Bucky loses his grip before Steve can get to him. He sees Bucky falling into the abyss and all he can do is scream. The nightmares returned after the last reported sighting of the Winter Soldier. Something in the way he moved reminded him of Bucky. But, it couldn’t be Bucky. He had died falling off that train. There was no way he was walking around the Rocky Mountains, growling at tourists and chasing wolves.

The nightmare only got worse after he fought the Winter Soldier on the airship. He had no doubts that the man he had fought was Bucky, but he could not explain why Bucky had not aged much more than he had. Not to mention, he could not explain the white wolf that some people saw roaming with the pack when the man was not with them.

_4/20/15_  
_I’m getting ready to go AWOL and visit Yellowstone without anyone’s permission. I keep dreaming about Bucky. Last night was the worst it has ever been. I watched him jump out of the airship as I fell. Then, I felt him drag me up from the bottom and leave me on the shore. That part I have always known. The part that I don’t understand is watching walk away from me and turn into a wolf as he walks into the tall grass on the shore. Men don’t turn into wolves, do they? Nat showed me more pictures. A bearded man walking among a pack of wolves in Yellowstone. A white wolf leading the pack on a hunt, the only markings on him is a solid grey front leg. Am I going crazy? Something tells me this is Bucky. How do I get everyone else to see what I am seeing?_

Steve dropped the folder full of pictures on Nick Fury’s desk. “Sir, I know that man is Bucky. I can’t tell you why, I just know. I need to go to Yellowstone to try to reach him.”

“Cap, even if it is him, it’s not.” Nick Fury opened the folder on his desk and tapped a blurry picture of a dark haired and bearded man standing in the middle of a circle of wolves. “This motherfucker has been brainwashed and trained to be nothing other than what his handlers want him to be. Even if you can prove that he is Barnes, there is no way you can save him or bring him back.”

“Sir, I have to try.” Steve shrugged and pointed to the next picture in the pile. “I can’t explain how I know it is hime, but I do. There was something in his eyes when we were fighting on that airship. He did not have to pull me out of the Potomac, but he did. I know I can bring him home, if I can find him.”

“Have you ever thought that he doesn’t want to be found?” Fury put the picture he had been holding back in the folder and closed it. “Not everyone who is lost wants to be found. You are reading a whole lot into a few gestures, Cap. I can’t send one of my best men on a wild goose chase on a feeling.”

“Sir, I have a plane ticket and a hotel reservation I need to book.” Steve picked the folder up from Fury’s desk. “I plan to be searching Yellowstone for this man by May or June with or without permission. I would like to have permission, but I need to find him.”

“You are the most stubborn old man I have ever met,” Fury growled as he reached into his desk. “Natasha warned me about this. I am going to regret this, but you can go. In May. For a week. Then, you drop this. We have other things to do.”

“Thank you, sir.” Steve turned and left Fury’s office.

“I can’t promise I’ll stop after a week,” Steve whispered under his breath as he continued down the hall. “There are too many questions that only he can answer.”

_5/20/2015_  
_I’m headed for Yellowstone in the morning. I need to find some answer so I can sleep. I heard a wolf howl in my dreams last night. It sounded just like the howls I heard coming from Rock Creek Park after everything last year. There has to be something to these dreams. It would be nice to get answers to a few questions instead of more questions. I know the answers are in that park. I just have to find them._

Steve looked around the lobby of the Old Faithful Inn. He had booked a room here hoping to stay close to the wolf pack, not to be swallowed up in a group of tourists. It felt like half the country had tried to cram into the space. Picking up his duffle from where he had dropped it at his feet, Steve took a deep breath and began making his way across the crowded lobby. He was never going to get up to his room and out of this crowd if he could not find a path to the registration desk.

“Pardon me,” A soft voice said as a distracted woman trying to read a message on her phone and make her way through the crush of people in the lobby bumped into him.

“No problem, ma’am,” Steve replied and smiled at her. “Could you tell me how to find the front desk? This lobby is harder to navigate than the subway in New York.”

“See that big staircase over there?” She pointed across the room. “Head in that direction, and you’ll find it. I’m trying to find my way to my room, but I’m going to get a breath of fresh air before I try to cross that sea of people again.”

“Thank you for your help.” Steve lifted his hand to shake hers. “Steve Rogers, nice to meet you.”

The woman stared at the hand extended to her. Juggling her bag and phone, she freed a hand to extend to him. “Hermione Granger, nice to meet you, too.”

“Well, I’d better get checked in. Enjoy your fresh air.” Steve backed toward the staircase and the check-in desk. There was something about her that drew his attention. He felt like he shouldn’t let her out of his sight.

“Thanks. Enjoy your visit.” She turned towards the front door. Steve watched her walk around the edges of the lobby towards the front door.

_5/22/2015_  
_I am no better off than I was three days ago. I may actually be sleeping less. The wolves howl every night. It actually feels like they are calling to me. The park rangers are great people but they are not helping. I just need to get out and start searching the woods. I am running out of time …_

He had come here to investigate the rumors that there was a man with a metal arm living amongst the wolves of Yellowstone. Nick Fury had sent him grainy photos of a long-haired man running along the ridges near the Old Faithful Inn. A man running along the ridgeline was not unusual, but the glint of metal down his right arm was. Steve had two questions to answer - Who was the man running on the ridge and if it was the Winter Soldier, was he really Bucky?

These mountains held their secrets better than Fort Knox. The ranger that Steve had talked to had seen no signs of illegal campsites, and he couldn’t place the ridgelines from what he could see on from the ground. He was going to have to take a different approach. He needed to clear his head. The front desk had recommended the sunset nature tour for tomorrow. Maybe some time in the woods without worrying about finding someone would help. He always seemed to find his keys when he quit looking, so he was going to stop looking for this mystery man for a few days and see what happened.

Steve had reached his limit with fuzzy pictures, nosey rangers, and answers that did not make sense. He had seen boot prints in the soft ground near one of the stops on the tour last night. The prints did not look like any hiking boot he had ever seen. They looked more like the boot prints he had seen every place the Winter Soldier had appeared. But, he was not going to get any closer to an answer if he waited on the rangers to take him into the backcountry. He had packed his suit and shield as a precaution, and now he was going to use them. Thanks to Tony, his suit had communications capabilities, if he needed them.

Settling his shield on to his back, Steve stepped out of his room. It would be late enough that no one would notice him leaving the Inn. He did not have time to answer questions. He was going to figure out who had made those boot prints.

Steve had been running through the forest when he stumbled over the air. He had been paying attention to the tracks he was following and was surprised to find himself with a sore shoulder and sitting on something soft and grumpy. But he could not see anything. It looked like he was sitting on air. “Get off me, you hulking lummox,” the invisible lump under his backside hissed. Steve fell off whatever he was sitting on when a curly head appeared in the air beside him and continued to scold him quietly. “Honestly, does no one pay attention to what they are doing or where they are going anymore? I’m going to have to recast that spell now because I’ve lost its trail.”

Steve looked at the floating head beside him. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t see you there, and I am tracking whoever made those prints you are destroying,” he whispered. “I hate to ask, but do you mind becoming more than a floating head. I know Wanda can do some interesting things, but I have never seen her cast a spell that creates a floating head.”

Steve thought he recognized the mystery woman who belonged to the floating head as she pulled something off her shoulders and emerged from the dark.

“Miss Granger?” Steve finally realized who he was looking at right now.

“Oh, sorry.” Hermione folded the cloak she had been wearing over her arm. “I almost forgot how well this thing works. What are you doing out here? I thought you were here for the sights and relaxation?”

“Well, I am supposed to be here for that. But things are not always as they seem.” Steve pointed at her cloak and wand. “Care to explain what those are and why you are out here?”

“I can see we both have secrets we are keeping.” Hermione looked over his shoulder at his shield. “Care to introduce yourself again?”

Steve ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. Fury was going to lay him out for this but what else could he do. “Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America. I work with the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.. I’m here to investigate reports of the Winter Soldier hiding here. And you are?”

“Hermione Granger. I’m with Magical Law Enforcement, a department of the Ministry of Magic in the U.K. I’m here to investigate the sighting of a man living amongst the wolves. I’m researching lycanthrope, it causes, and possible cures.”

Steve raised an eyebrow as he shook her hand. “Since we are both out here in the dark, maybe we can help each other.”

“I suppose so.” Hermione began to stuff the cloak back into her beaded bag. “How are you at tracking?”

“I can follow a boot print as good as the next man.” Steve watched her pull a dark hoodie out of her small bag. “What else do you have in there?”

“Just a few things.” Hermione closed her bag and threw the straps over her shoulder. “ _Inveneit Lupus._ I have a feeling my tracking and your tracking are going to lead to the same place.”

“Ladies first.” Steve watched her follow the silver spark that had left the tip of her wand. “I have a feeling we may not like what we find at the end of this trail.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Inveneit Lupus - find wolf (Latin)


	14. Chapter 11 - Volk (Wolf)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky has begun to stalk the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone as his dreams and his wolf push him closer to answers. But, the forests of Yellowstone offer just as many questions as they do answers. How will a confrontation on a moonlit night change everything?

_Our brothers say he is coming. Be patient. We will add our lost brother back into the pack. Then, we will go home and find her. The promised one._

Bucky could feel the wolf prowling in the back of his mind as he watched people go in and out of the large lodge in the heart of the pack’s territory. The wolf had been driving him to watch the lodge for weeks, but he had seen no signs of the soldier he had fought last year.

“There is no point in this,” Bucky grumbled, dropping to the ground from where he had been sitting in the tree. “People of every shape and size have come and gone from that place, but not him. This is useless.”

“ _He will come.”_ The wolf’s voice rumbled in his head. “ _I can feel him getting closer. Our brother will be here soon._ ”

“So, what do we do with him when he gets here?” Bucky growled back at the voice in his head. “I have no idea why I feel like I should know him. I have a feeling he is not going to give up what he has to join us in the forest.”

“ _Bite him. Make him like us._ ” The wolf’s snarl echoed through his head. “ _Do whatever it takes to make him a part of the pack. He is our brother, and he needs to join us._ ”

“I am not biting him.” Bucky could feel a growl escape his throat as he continued to argue with his other half. “We will figure it out if he shows up.”

He turned his back on the lodge and walked back into the trees as he heard the other wolves in their pack begin their nightly howl. It was still too cold to spend the night in his human skin. Letting his wolf have their body, he slipped quietly into the night.

_She will help him find us. He is almost here. The fuzzy one with the magic will help our brother find us. Not much longer now. It is time to remember. You are more than just Zima Bohn. We are more. It is time to remember. It is time._

Bucky woke with a scream trapped in his throat. The nightmare that had been plaguing him since the wolf started to drive him toward the lodge every day. He dreamed of cold and white and pain. He also dreamed of the soldier he had fought in the sky. But, in that dream, they were not fighting against each other; they were fighting side by side. Visions of fire separated him from the man he called brother seemed to end ever dream.

“I’m not leaving you.” Bucky could feel himself scream as he woke from another night of dreams and whispers. The words he hated still filled his mind as he slept but they were getting quieter, and another set of words was trying to come to the surface. Carefully pushing warm, furry bodies from around himself, he stood and walked to the entrance of their den. He was restless and did not want to disturb his brothers. The pack had been good to him since he had arrived.

“ _They are our brothers, but the other is near,_ ” the wolf whispered as Bucky watched the rainfall on the trees around their den. “ _We will have to fight him to get him. He will want you to remember and join him. What will we do?_ ”

“It depends on remembering who I am. “Bucky answered the questions bouncing around in his head. “There is something in the whispers that haunt my sleep. There is something I need to remember that makes all the difference.”

“ _We will remember when it is time._ ” The wolf retreated to a corner of Bucky’s mind. “ _We will remember when it is time, Zimniy Soldat._ ”

_Slushat’. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor’ba. Skoro uvidimsya … Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N’yu-York… Slushat’. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor’ba. Skoro uvidimsya … Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N’yu-York. … Slushat’. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor’ba. Skoro uvidimsya … Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York … Listen. Heal. Train. Fight. I will see you soon ..._

The tone of his dreams was changing. They no longer felt like nightmares. They were beginning to feel like pieces of memories instead of dreams. All he had to do was figure out why they felt that way.

Bucky watched the people walk in and out of the lodge from his perch in the trees. It had become part of his daily ritual to spend a few hours seeing who was coming and going in this part of the pack’s territory. The time watching people come and go gave him time to think about what he had been dreaming.

Sitting in the trees, Bucky began to think about what some of the pieces could mean. “Why do I hear the same phrase in two languages?”

“ _What we speak now was not always who we were._ ” The wolf’s whisper was welcome today. “ _They will explain. The fuzzy one and the soldier have our answers._ ”

“But, what if I don’t want the answers?” Bucky felt his heart race at the thought. “Remembering hurts. We can move forward. Step back into the world.”

“ _We have to remember to be free._ ” The wolf growled and stirred in the back of his mind. “ _Someone is coming. We need to be ready._ ”

“Who is the woman who tells me to wait and heal in my dreams?” He searched the faces of the people arriving at the lodge for a familiar face. “Who is James Barnes?”

“ _You will remember when it is time. She promised._ ” Bucky could almost see the wolf’s ears perk up as his voice filled his head. “ _I have the memories, and we will see them when it is time. Be patient._ ”

“I am running out of time.” Bucky felt a chill run down his spine. “We have been here too long. We need to go home soon. Our brothers in the mountains are calling to me. I hear their howls when we sleep.”

He could feel the wolf move forward as he watched a curly-haired woman enter the lodge. “ _The witch is here. He will follow soon._ ”

“How do you know she is a witch?” Bucky sighed as he continued to watch the people. “She is just a woman with curly hair walking into the lodge.”

“ _It is in the wind,_ ” the wolf whispered. “ _It is time to get ready. Our brother will be here soon. She will lead him to us. It is time._ ”

Bucky dropped out of the tree and crouched in the scrub. He needed to get back to the pack to prepare. If the wolf was right, they had a fight coming, and he needed his brothers ready.

“Need to get out of here without leaving a trail to be followed,” Bucky grumbled as he looked for a branch to help him cover his tracks. “There's no use asking for trouble. Witches are always trouble.”

“ _Let them follow,_ ” the wolf growled. “ _We need them to follow us to the clearing. We will meet them there when it is time._ ”

Bucky gave one last look at the lodge and jogged deeper into the trees. Leaving a trail of boot prints that turned into paw prints, Bucky disappeared into the sunset.

_Prosnis’, soldat ... pora drat’sya... idet tvoy brat … Bor’ba… Skoro uvidimsya … Borot’sya za otvety ... Borot’sya za moye obeshchaniye ..._

A flash of red hair and a whisper woke him from his deep sleep. She was warning of something as she always had. His brothers were restless in their sleep around him. Standing and shaking out his fur, the wolf left the tangle of the body he had been sleeping in.

Walking to the mouth of the den, he watched the clouds cover the moon and drop the forest into deep shadows. It was time to meet the ones who had been chasing them. With a howl, he woke his brothers and let the man come forward.

_“Vremya prishlo … Oni zdes' ... Vremya drat'sya … Prosypaysya soldat … ”_

Bucky looked around the clearing. He could see the eyes of his pack glowing in the darkness. This was where he had dreamed of the soldier. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he felt a change in the air.

 _Inveneit Lupus._ A whisper in the wind started a rumble among the wolves around him. “Stay in the trees, brothers. Let us see what we are up against before we rip their throats out.”

“ _The soldier and the witch are almost here._ ” Bucky could feel the brush of the wolf against his mind. “ _The soldier comes first. Then we will deal with the witch._ ”

Bucky watched a spark settle into the center of the clearing. He could feel the wolves around him getting restless. The air was becoming heavier, and he could not shake the feeling of gloom.

As the moon slid from behind the clouds, a tall man emerged in the clearing. A glint of moonlight off the shield he carried identified the soldier for Bucky. He was facing the man he had fought in the airship and who haunted his dreams.

“ _Dobriy vyecher, Kaptian._ What brings you to my brothers?” Bucky stepped from the shadows to face the soldier.

“Looking for you, my friend. There are a lot of people looking for you, _Bohn_.”

“But my brothers do not wish for me to be found. What reason should I give them to let you leave?”

“I’m not leaving without you. I have questions. Questions that can be answered, soldier to soldier.”

“No time for questions or answers, _Kaptian_. I have no answers that you want. My brothers tell me it is time to go.”

“I can’t let you leave. Too much depends on you. Too many people need you.”

 _Umbra Murus._ Bucky heard another whisper in the wind and watched a wall of shadows rise from the ground. They separated him from all but one of the members of his pack.

His wolf whispered in his ear. “ _She is here. Her magic is dangerous. We are stronger. Get what we need and leave._ ”

 _Immobulus._ Bucky felt himself fall to the ground, frozen as the next spell drifted in the wind. The soldier knelt beside him and turned him so that the moon shone in his face.

“Bucky? This is not possible. I saw you fall…”

“ _Ne ... kto ... ty ... dumayesh_ ’… Not … who … you … think … _Kaptian_. What … have … you … done?”

“The spell immobilizes him but still allows us to get answers to questions.”

“What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay back.”

“I don’t follow directions well. I loosened the spell a little, so it will be easier for him to talk. I have questions of my own I want to be answered. Why are you here among the wolves?”

Bucky let his eyes focus on the woman who had stepped out of the shadows to argue with the soldier. Calling to his inner wolf, Bucky spoke to her.

“Not for you to know, _vedma_. There are many things that you will want to know, but I cannot give you the answers.”

The wolf grinned as he watched the battle between the witch and the soldier. He would have the body soon. Her spell would not hold them for much longer. The soldier broke his stare with the witch to ask another question.

“What is your name, soldier? Why do you remind me of a long lost friend?”

Bucky chose to answer the witch and watch the soldier.

“The wolves are my brothers, _vedma_. I am more than your spell can hold. I am _Zimniy Soldat._ I am _Belyy volk_. I am _oboroten._ It is time to join my brothers. I will see you again. _Proshchay, druz’ya moi._ ”

Bucky could feel the bonds of the spell breaking as the wolf pushed to the front of his mind. Time to use the magic he had been forced to endure to his advantages. Bucky surrendered his body to the wolf and slipped the bonds of the witch’s spell and the soldier’s hands.

Howling as he ran, the wolf summoned his pack from the shadows and disappeared into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Slushat'. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor'ba. Skoro uvidimsya. - Listen. Heal. Train. Fight. I will see you soon. (Russian)  
> Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York. - Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York (Russian)  
> Prosnis', soldat ... Pora drat'sya ... Idet tvoy brat … Bor'ba … Skoro uvidimsya ,,, Borot'sya za otvety ... Borot'sya za moye obeshchaniye - Wake up soldier … it is time to fight ... Your brother is coming … Fight ... I will see you soon … fight for answers … fight for my promise (Russian)  
> Vremya prishlo … Oni zdes' ... Vremya drat'sya … Prosypaysya soldat ... - It is time … They are here … Time to fight … Wake up soldier … (Russian)  
> Inveneit Lupus - find wolf (Latin)  
> Umbra Murus - shadow wall (Latin)  
> Immobulus - Freezing charm  
> Dobriy vyecher - Good evening (Russian)  
> Ne ... kto ... ty ... dumayesh' - Not … who … you … think … (Russian)  
> Bohn - soldier (Russian)  
> Vedma - witch (Russian)  
> Zimniy Soldat - Winter Soldier (Russian)  
> Belyy volk - White wolf (Russian)  
> Oboroten - werewolf (Russian)  
> Proshchay, druz'ya moi - Farewell for now, my friends. (Russian)


	15. Chapter 12 -  Animato Animagus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione is finally at Yellowstone and hunting for answers. She had not planned on running into a war hero from a different era on a similar quest, but she will take all the help she can get. Will a discovery in the forsets of Yellowston National Park change everything?

_10 February 2015_  
_I am so tired of paper trails that lead nowhere. I am going to go back to the American west to find answers. Then I’ll chase Dolohov’s spell in the Carpathian Mountains. I need to find this man in the pictures … and the wolf._

Hermione looked around her office. She could get lost in the stacks of books and scrolls that covered every surface. Her werewolf project might be getting a little out of hand. She was still searching for the origins of werewolves. She needed to know where they came from before the Healers at St. Mungo’s could help their latest victims—seeing what Bill and Lavender had been through since the war had made her search for answers more critical.

She was running out of resources at the Ministry. In addition to the information she had gathered from healers who had tried to treat those who had been turned, she had the mystery of Dolhov’s journals and the werewolf he claimed to create. She had started chasing legends of men who turned into wolves from every country on the globe in the years since she started her research. She needed to do research where native cultures had references to wolves or incorporated wolves into their culture. It was time to take another trip to the American West.

_20 June 2015_  
_I cannot believe I finally got the Ministry to agree to this trip. I hate that I only have a week to get all the research done, but I understand why the limits are there. I have been working on this project for more than ten years. Surely, one of these days, I will find an actual answer instead of another bloody question. The man who walks with the wolves of Yellowstone has to be the key. Now all I have to do is find him …_

Hermione clutched her beaded bag to her chest and looked around the crowded lobby. She still had issues with crowds in new places, and she had never expected to see this many people in the middle of nowhere. Percy had recommended the Old Faithful Inn. She should have researched it a little better before she picked up her portkey this morning. The lobby felt more massive than the Ministry. The clerk at the desk had given her her key, directing her to the far side of the lobby, across a sea of people. Not a path she wanted to walk but, she needed to get to her room so she could get settled.

She had come here because Percy had arranged for her to meet with some local shamans. She wanted to talk to them about the connections they felt to the wolves of Yellowstone. Hermione also wanted to see if they had any legends of men turning into wolves. She had come here to investigate the rumors of a man wandering with the wolves in Yellowstone. There had to be some clues here, a place where people were not surprised by the tales of a man living among the wolves.

“Pardon me,” Hermione mumbled as she looked up from her mobile because she had bumped into the gentleman in front of her.

“No problem, ma’am,” Hermione was surprised by the man’s deep voice and calm reply. “Could you tell me how to find the front desk? The lobby is harder to navigate than the subway in New York.”

“See that big staircase over there?” She smiled up at him and pointed across the room. “Head in that direction, and you’ll find it. I’m trying to find my way to my room, but I’m going to get a breath of fresh air before I try to cross that sea of people again.”

“Thank you for your help.” He lifted his hand to shake hers. “Steve Rogers, nice to meet you.”

Hermione stared at the hand, extended to her. Juggling her bag and mobile, she freed a hand to grasp his. “Hermione Granger, nice to meet you, too.”

“Well, I’d better get checked in. Enjoy your fresh air.” Hermione watched him walk backwards toward the staircase and the check-in desk. There was something about him that drew her in. She felt like he was an essential piece of her puzzle, and she had no clue who he was...

“Thanks. Enjoy your visit.” Hermione turned towards the front door. There was something in his manner that reminded her of a different time. She had other things to worry about right now, like not having a panic attack when she finally decided to find her room.

_22 June 2015_  
_The visit with the Lakota shaman was not much of a help. He did talk to me about the legends his people had about wolves and his people’s connection to them. But, he did not have any stories that involved men turning into wolves and living with a pack. I need to look around the woods. See if I can track him or the pack he has been pictured with. I really could use Harry and Ron right now … Just don’t tell them I said that._

These mountains were hiding something. Hermione was more sure of that fact after meeting with the shamans today. She arranged for a guide to take her on a wildlife watching tour tomorrow at dawn and the day after at dusk. The time in between was going to be spent going over notes she had taken while she was talking to the shamans. Each of the four tribe’s cultures had a strong tie to the land, and the wolves were a part of their mythology. But, so far, no evidence of men turning into wolves. She had a week to figure out why the tabloids were reporting a man amongst the wolves.

She was done with tours and shamans and questions without answers. Hermione had seen the wolves last night, and something wasn’t right. They had been restless, and the few howls that she heard were nothing like the wolf song she had discovered during her research. It was a good thing she had borrowed Harry’s cloak for this trip. It was easier to find out information if people could not see you looking.

Hermione waited for the Inn to get quiet before she slipped the invisibility cloak around her shoulders, pulled her wand out of her bag, and opened her door. She was going back to the ridge where she had seen the wolves last night. She had fought in a war and survived. She was going to find out what answers the night held.

Under the light of the full moon, Hermione searched the ridge for signs of the wolves. She knew that if she were going to see a transformation, tonight would be the night. All werewolves had trouble around the full moon. Even those that had been bitten but not turned had difficulty. That was why she was here. Gripping her wand tightly, she cast _Inveneit Lupus._ She watched a silver spark leave the end of her wand and slip through the trees. The spell was meant to find the wolves. She was hoping it would lead to more than just wolves.

Tugging her borrowed cloak around her tighter, Hermione rushed to follow the spark through the forest. She needed to find this pack of wolves and find out why they were so different from any other pack she had studied. “Ouch!” she hissed, feeling something hit her from behind and then sit on her.

Twenty minutes later, Hermione was untangling herself from the man she had bumped into in the lobby. She had not expected this twist to her adventure. It seemed like she was getting a war hero to help her in her search after all if he didn’t ruin her tracking spell first.

With a flick of her wrist, Hermione recast her tracking spell. “ _Inveneit Lupus_. I have a feeling my tracking and your tracking are going to lead to the same place.”

“Ladies first.” Steve watched her follow the silver spark that had left the tip of her wand. “I have a feeling we may not like what we find at the end of this trail.”

They continued to follow Hermione’s spark through the forest. Hermione could feel him studying her as she walked in front of him. As long as he was quiet and did not disturb the spell again, she was not going to complain about the company.

Hermione usually did not like people behind her; it made her feel unguarded. She did not feel that way with Steve. She felt almost fearless, knowing he was behind her. She had not had that feeling in a long time. She needed to pay attention to where the spark in front of her was leading, not the one behind her.

Hermione felt Steve’s hand on her shoulder. “Something doesn’t feel right,” he whispered in her ear. “The spark should still be moving, and I don’t see boot prints. Wait here while I check what is ahead of us.”

Hermione nodded and reached for her bag. “I’m going to use the cloak again. I’ll leave my bag outside the cloak so you can find me,” she whispered as she watched him remove his shield and move towards the spark. “Watch yourself.”

Even under the cloak, Hermione felt like they were being watched. Eyes seemed to glow at them from the trees. She was far enough away from Steve, allowing him to keep his attention on the woods around them. When he heard a branch snap, Steve turned towards it.

“ _Dobriy vyecher, Kaptian._ What brings you to my brothers?” A voice rumbled out of the shadows.

“Looking for you, my friend.” Steve lowered his shield as he looked at the figure who had emerged from the trees, a snarling wolf at his side. His dark hair hung around his face, hiding his features. “There are a lot of people looking for you, _Bohn_.”

“But my brothers do not wish for me to be found.” The soldier lowered his hand to the back of the wolf. “What reason should I give them to let you leave?”

“I’m not leaving without you. I have questions.” Hermione watched Steve change his grip on his shield. “Questions that can be answered, soldier to soldier.”

“No time for questions or answers, _Kaptian_. I have no answers that you want.” The soldier began to slide back into the forest as he spoke. “My brothers tell me it is time to go.”

“I can’t let you leave.” Steve began to walk towards the dark soldier. “Too much depends on you. Too many people need you.”

Hermione screamed as she watched the dark soldier leap towards Steve. She had been watching him closer than she had been watching Steve. Her instincts had agreed with Steve’s bad feeling, but not with his solution. Hermione dropped the cloak and drew her wand. There had to be a way to help without getting everyone hurt. The glowing eyes of wolves were moving to form a tight circle around the two men wrestling on the ground. Steve had dropped his shield and was struggling to keep the soldier’s metal arm from reaching his throat. She had two different enemies to worry about, the one circling the fight and the one in the middle of the battle.

 _Umbra Murus._ The shadow wall spell should keep the wolves out and leave only one person for Steve to fight. It would also keep her out. She needed to figure out how she was going to defend herself against a whole pack of wolves with only her cape and a wand. The wolves seemed more interested in getting to the soldiers than getting to her.

Circling through the trees, Hermione tried to find a better view of the fight. She did not like what she was seeing. Steve was on his back, and the other soldier was pressing his advantage.

 _Immobulus_. Hermione cast the spell and watched the other soldier freeze. She watched Steve push the frozen man to the side and look closely at the face.

“Bucky? This is not possible. I saw you fall…” Hermione listened to Steve’s voice break as he continued to stare at the man on the ground beside him.

“ _Ne ... kto ... ty ... dumayesh’_ … Not … who … you … think … _Kaptian_. What … have … you … done?”

Hermione’s voice floated through the air. “The spell immobilizes him but still allows us to get answers to questions.”

“What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay back.” Hermione listened to Steve growl at her as she approached him and flicked her wand at the soldier Steve had been fighting.

“I don’t follow directions well.” Hermione shrugged and continued to watch the man beside him. “I loosened the spell a little, so it will be easier for him to talk. I have questions of my own I want to be answered. Why are you here among the wolves?”

“Not for you to know, _vedma_ ,” their captive continued in a halting voice. “There are many things that you will want to know, but I cannot give you the answers.”

“What is your name, soldier?” Hermione watched Steve struggle to contain his emotions as he scanned the man’s face. “Why do you remind me of a long lost friend?”

“The wolves are my brothers, _vedma._ ” the soldier tried to turn his head towards her. “I am more than your spell can hold. I am _Zimniy Soldat._ I am _Belyy volk_. I am _oborten_.”

Growling, the soldier looked up at Steve. “It is time to join my brothers. I will see you again. _Proshchay, druz’ya moi._ ”

Hermione and Steve watched in horror as the soldier’s features began to change. Slowly, a large white wolf with one silver leg replaced the dark soldier that had laid before him. With a final howl, the wolf jumped the shadow wall spell and ran into the woods with the other wolves.

Hermione waved her wand to dissolve the shadow wall.

“What was that?” Steve rubbed his eyes, not believing what he had seen.

“That was one of the most unusual werewolves I have ever seen. He knew I was a witch.” Hermione sat on the ground beside Steve. “We won’t find him here again. I have never seen a werewolf run with a pack of wild wolves or be able to control his shift like that.”

“What did he mean by ‘I am _Zimniy Soldat_.’? Why does he look so much like Bucky?” Hermione sat on the ground beside Steve as he continued to ask questions and stare out into the trees where the wolves had disappeared.

“ _Zimniy Soldat_ means Winter Soldier in Russian. I don’t know what he means by that. “Hermione laid her head against his shoulder. “As to why he looks like your friend, I don’t know. How long has it been since you saw him?”

“World War Two,” Steve sighed and wrapped his arm around Hermione’s shoulders. “Roughly sixty years. That is a story for another time. It is late, and I am tired.”

“At least we don’t have to walk back.” Hermione reached for Steve’s hand. “I hope you don’t get sick easily.”

With a pop, Hermione apparated them to her hotel room. Steve dropped his shield and reached for his stomach, eyes searching the room. “Sorry about that. Apparating was faster than walking.” Hermione shrugged and handed him the wastebasket. “Give yourself a few minutes. Your stomach should settle.”

“Remind me never to do THAT again. I think I would rather walk.” Steve laid back on her bed and closed his eyes. “I need to make some calls. Nick Fury has some questions to answer.”

“And I have another trip to plan.” Hermione sat on the bed beside him. “I have a feeling I am going to have to head back to the Carpathian Mountains. I have never seen or heard of a werewolf breaking out of that spell or transforming the way he did.”

“Fury is not going to believe any of this,” Steve continued to mumble to himself. “How do I explain a man with a metal arm or the fact that he turned into a solid white wolf with a silver leg. Or why he looks like a long lost friend … When he is not a wolf.”

“Well, neither is the Minister, so we are both in the same boat.” Hermione flopped back on the bed beside him. “I have so much research to do. It is a good thing I have a portkey set for tomorrow. I need to get back to the office.”

“I need to get back, too. Fury will send transport as soon as I call.” Steve laid his arm over his closed eyes. “I need to sleep first, but I don’t want to move.”

“Then don’t.” Hermione touched his shoulder. “This bed is big enough for the two of us.”

Hermione laid her head on Steve’s shoulder and her hand over his heart. “Night, Steve.”

“Night, Hermione. Sweet dreams.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Inveneit Lupus - find wolf (Latin)  
> Umbra Murus - shadow wall (Latin)  
> Immobulus - Freezing charm  
> Dobriy vyecher - Good evening (Russian)  
> Bohn - soldier (Russian)  
> Vedma - witch (Russian)  
> Zima bohn - winter soldier (Russian)  
> Oboroten - werewolf (Russian)  
> Zimniy Soldat - Winter Soldier (Russian)  
> Belyy volk - White wolf (Russian)  
> Ne ... kto ... ty ... dumayesh' - Not … who … you … think … (Russian)  
> Proshchay, druz'ya moi - Farewell for now, my friends. (Russian)


	16. Chapter 13 - Chasing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve returns from Yellowstone with more question and a new ally. Can he find enough answers to convince Fury to let him keep chasing the Winter Soldier? Can Steve find the clue that will let him prove exactly who the Winter Soldier is?

_7/4/2015_   
_Happy birthday to me! Not really but what else am I going to say on the day I turn 97. I wish I was back in that forest. I know it was Bucky. Now all I have to do is find him again. And the witch, I need to find her again too …_

Steve looked around his apartment. Nothing was different from when he had left for Yellowstone, but everything had changed. He had finally seen Bucky with his own eyes and talked to him when they weren’t in the middle of an international incident. But then again, today was his birthday and he was turning 97. Not that he remembered all of those 97 years, but he felt them today.

His dreams had changed since he had returned from Yellowstone. He was still haunted by Bucky’s fall from the train and his fall from the airship, but he was also haunted by a pair of dark eyes. His encounter with Hermione and her help with finding and talking to Bucky had changed his perspective on the world around him. It had not so much been falling over her in the middle of the woods as much as it had been the way she had taken care of him after they returned to the Old Faithful Inn. She had been horrible at following orders and had probably caused more chaos than he was prepared for, but she had also offered him a chance to ask the man he thought had been his best friend questions and almost get answers, He still never wanted to apparate anywhere. That was worse than being thawed out and not knowing when or where he was.

A scratching at the window brought him out of his thoughts. “What is an owl doing at my window? Is it holding a package?”

Steve walked over to the window and opened it. A very ruffled owl flew into his living room and dropped a package and a letter on his coffee table before it landed on the back of his couch. Steve picked up the letter and package from the table. He started to sit on the couch, but one look from the owl had him settling in the overstuffed chair on the other side of the room.

Steve looked closer at the package and the letter. The letter was addressed to Captain Steve Rogers, Washington DC and the package was wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine. It reminded him of the way packages had been wrapped before the war. The letter was sealed with wax and didn’t have a return address. Steve put the package up to his ear and shook it. “Well, at least it doesn’t sound like a bomb. Maybe I should read the letter first.”

Steve felt a little strange talking to the owl as he looked over what had been delivered. “Do you need anything? Water? A mouse? How do you tip an owl for delivering a package?”

Still watching the owl watch him, Steve broke the seal on the back of the letter and unfolded it. Three large pellets fell out of the letter and the owl swooped down from its perch to snatch them up. “Well, I guess that is your tip. I left the window open for you. Thank you for the delivery.”

Steve watched the owl eat the last of the pellets and settle its feathers. After blinking at him twice, the owl stretched its wings and made its way out the window.

With a shrug, Steve settled back into his chair and started to read the letter.

_“Happy birthday Steve,_

_Don’t mind the owl. He’ll leave after he eats the pellets and stares you down. We use owls for most deliveries here, and I knew an owl could find you before the post could._

_I hope things are going well for you. I know you didn’t talk much about the man we met in the forest, but I think I may have some more clues for you. We might be able to figure this out quickly if we worked together. I have gotten permission from the Ministry to work with you on my project. The only reason the Minister agree to it was because of my War hero status and your reputation. He is supposed to contact someone named Fury about releasing you to help me with my research._

_I have sent you a small token for your birthday. It’s not much, but I saw it in a shop in Diagon Alley, and it made me think of you. I hope you like it._

_Regards,_   
_Hermione_

_P.S. - Ron and Harry wanted me to tell you hello. Apparently, they know who you are, and that is how I know July 4th is your birthday. Something about you helping save the world from something almost as wrong as we did … I will never completely understand those two.”_

Steve laughed as he read the letter for a second time. He could imagine the disgruntled look on her face as she had written the end of the letter. He had seen it enough when they had been in the forest in Yellowstone. Setting the letter back on the coffee table, Steve picked up the package and started to untie the twine.

Ten minutes later, Steve held a leather cuff with a star, a wolf, and a feather stamped into it. “Interesting choice, Ms Granger, but, I like it.”

Steve wrapped the cuff around his wrist and walked to the window. The first burst of fireworks made a small smile appear on his face. Maybe turning 97 wasn’t so bad after all.

_8/5/2015_   
_Well, that was a bust. Nat thought she found something never where she was told her grandmother had been trained. She came back from her trip to the Carpathian mountains more haunted than I have seen her in a long time. Something about hunting for the Winter Soldier and her family has really seemed to make her quiet …_

Steve watched Natasha pace in front of the windows that looked over Rock Creek Park. “Are you just going to wear a hole in my carpet or are you actually going to talk to me?”

“There is nothing to talk about.” Natasha stopped her pacing and looked Stev in the eye. “There was nothing in that bunker but old medical equipment, dust and a strong box. There were supposed to be answers for you and me, but there was nothing.”

“What was in the box?” Steve asked from where he sat on his couch. “There had to be something, or you would not be this upset. What was in that box, Nat?”

“Just a bunch of papers. Scribbles of a mad man.” Natasha shrugged and began to pace again.”Coded papers talking about spells and werewolves and things that are not possible.”

“You and I both know spells are possible.” Steve stood up and walked towards Natasha. “I have seen them with my own eyes. Those scraps of paper are clues, no matter how strange they seem. There was something in that box that made you quiet. Tell me.”

“It’s nothing.” Natasha shrugged. “Just a few pictures of a wolf and a red-haired woman.”

“Let me see.” Steve held out his hand, palm up. “What was in the pictures that spooked you. I haven’t seen you like this since you told me about the Winter Soldier. We both know he exists and he looks too much like Bucky to not be him.”

“You act like I have the pictures, Rogers.” Natasha turned her back to Steve and stared out the window. “I may be a spy and a double agent, but I am not a thief.”

“I know that, but I also know you.” Steve put his hand on her shoulder. “If you had turned over everything in that box, Fury would have called me in to see the pictures. Now, let me see the pictures.”

“There are times when you are a pain in the ass.” Natasha reached inside her jacket and pulled out an envelope. “For a fossil, you don’t miss much. The inscriptions on the back make about as much sense as the fact that I feel like I am looking in the mirror when I look at her.”

“What does ‘ _shpion i volk_ ’ mean?” Steve asked as he looked at the backs of the pictures. “Who is the woman in the pictures? The wolf I recognize. It is the wolf from Yellowstone.”

“It translates to ‘the spy and the wolf’, but that makes no sense. According to some of the papers in the box, she is my grandmother, and that wolf is the Winter Soldier.” Natasha shrugged and let Steve keep looking at the pictures. “There is no way that the wolf is the same wolf you saw this summer. That picture was taken in the forties.”

“Well, that wolf that I saw in Yellowstone was Bucky, I can feel it.” Steve handed the pictures back to Natasha. “According to what we have found and what Hermione has shared, Bucky was experimented on before I rescued him and the Howling Commandos the first time. With the same stuff that was used on me. I am 97 years old. That should not be possible, but it is.”

“There are lots of things that should not be possible.” Natasha stopped pacing and sat on the couch. “None of this feels right. Long lost family, prophecies, witches and werewolves. Even for me, this is a little too strange.”

“So what really spooked you in the mountains, Nat?” Steve sat beside her and put his hand over hers. “Why are you holding on to those pictures and pacing a hole in my living room floor.”

“I don’t like not knowing. I felt something watching me when I was in those mountains.” Natasha sighed. “The way the wolves howled every night like they were calling not just to each other but to me. I don’t believe in coincidences, and there have to be reasons for all of this. The clues that drop in different people’s laps. What in the hell is going on, Steve?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Steve squeezed Natasha’s hand. “I’ve been trying to figure it out since the mask came off the Winter Soldier face and I was staring into a face I watched fall to his death from a train more than fifty years ago.”

“I hate puzzles.” Natasha growled and ran a finger over the picture of a white wolf. “Especially puzzles with pieces that still don’t fit.”

_9/15/2015_   
_Just got a letter from Hermione. It seems like her research is sending her the same place that haunted Nat. I wonder how she would feel about a research partner. I am tired of trying to find answers by myself. Maybe there is more that we can share …_

“Sir, I need to go to the Carpathian Mountains.” Steve stood at attention across the room from Nick Fury. “What Nat found is the tip of the iceberg. There has to be something more there. Granger would meet me there.”

“Who the hell is Granger?” Fury looked up from his desk and scowled. “Are you still chasing ghosts? We have bigger things to get done than chase down the ghost of a man you fought with. We have actual bad guys to fight, Cap.”

“Hermione Granger is the witch chasing werewolves that I met at Yellowstone.” Steve shrugged and waited for Fury to explode. “She helped me trace the Winter Soldier and tried to help me question him. She has research that could help sort out why the guy I am chasing looks exactly like Bucky. Why the guy I’m chasing is Bucky.”

“It’s time to let it go, Cap.” Fury growled as he leaned on his desk to stand. “We have more important things to worry about than the ghost of your war buddy. I need you to be here, not in those mountains.”

“Give me six months.” Steve settled his palms on the desk and stared back at Fury. “Let me see what is in those mountains that spooked Nat and keeps pulling Granger back. There could be answers for more than just me there. Let me find them.”

“Six months.” Fury settled back into his chair. “Then, it is done. If you find something more than another set of questions, you can keep going. If you only find more questions, you drop this mother fucker at the curb and get back to work.”

“Yes, sir.”

_10/25/2015_   
_I’m headed to London for a visit. It has been a while since I was there for anything other than SHIELD business. This trip is just for me. Hermione invited me. I know she said she thought she had some answers, but I think I have a few new questions to ask._

Steve looked around the Arrivals lobby at Heathrow. Hermione had promised to meet him there and show him around her side of London. The crush of people waiting for loved ones made it difficult to pick out anyone in the crowd.

“Steve, over here.” A familiar voice drifted over the rest of the crowd’s noise, looking towards the new voice. He spotted a curly head pushing its way through the crowd.

“Stay there! I’m coming to you.” Steve spoke as loud as he dared. He didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself. He pulled the baseball cap lower on his head and started to move through the crowd towards his welcoming committee. He wanted Hermione to recognize him but not the rest of London.

“I’m so glad you are here.’ Hermione exclaimed as he finally reached her and set down his bag. “We need to get out of her and to the nearest apparation point. It won’t take long to get to Grimawald place if we apparate.”

Steve felt his hand reflexively reach for his stomach at the mention of apparating. “Do you mind if we don’t apparate? I just flew across the Atlantic. I don’t know how well my stomach can handle another adventure in apparating.”

“Well, depending on how much you brought with you, we could send your luggage ahead and just walk.” Hermione grabbed one of Steve’s hands and pulled it away from Steve’s stomach. “After your reaction to the last time we apparated, I thought you might not want to do it again after flying. Harry and Ron know to expect your bags by Floo long before we get to Grimmauld Place.”

“Remind me again, who are Harry and Ron?” Steve looked down at where Hermione had grabbed and held his hand. “You talk about them in your letters. But I’m not sure you have ever explained who they are.”

“Harry and Ron are school friends.” Hermione shrugged and pulled Steve towards the edge of the room. “We fought in the Second Wizarding War when we were still in school. Some people consider us war heroes. Harry and I work for the Ministry, and Ron has a shop with his brother in Diagon Alley.”

“I’m guessing I’ll get to meet them later.” Steve let Hermione lead the way and tried not to run over people as rushed them toward the door at the far end of the hall. “I still have to pick up my bags even if you are going to find a way for me to not have to carry them all the way to your place. Where exactly are we going?’

“Did you use the luggage tags I sent you?” Hermione stopped and waited for Steve to nod. “Good. I’ll send a message to Harry, and he can get them.”

“Won’t security have an issue with that?” Steve pulled Hermione into an embrace to keep her from pulling them through the crowd again. “They can get picky about bags that are left behind or not picked up by the right person.”

“With just a little magic, no one will know.” Hermione grinned, rose up on her toes and kissed Steve’s cheek. ”Come on now. The faster we get out of here, the faster I can show you a different side of London.”

“But, what about the research?” Steve tried not to smile as Hermione turned and tugged on his hand. “You said you might have found something.”

“There will be time for that later, Steve. Come on, adventure is waiting for you … Trust me?”

_11/26/2015_   
_Decided to spend this week in New York instead of DC. I have a few ghosts I need to put to rest. I think I even have a few old friends to start trying to rescue. I gave up on him once, I am not doing it again …_

Steve looked around at the buildings on his old street. Nothing looked the same. The map said this was the street, but that buildings said it wasn’t.

“I guess it’s true what they say,” Steve grumbled. “You can’t go home. Too much time and too many changes.”

“What are grumbling about, Old Man.” Natasha put a hand on Steve’s shoulder as she spoke. “You are not going to find him here. I know where he is, and he is starting to remember.”

“Who are you talking about, Nat?”

“The Winter Soldier is Bucky Barnes … He just doesn’t know it yet.”


	17. Chapter 14 - Begotnya (Running)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A red headed stranger walks into Bucky's dreams and the Carpathian Mountains. Can she help him find more clues to unlock his past or will she leave him with more questions?

_Time to go home. The soldier and the witch found us. So will others if we stary here. Time to go back to our mountains …_

Bucky looked around the clearing where the wolves had gathered. The wolf pushed him to find a way to leave Yellowstone and return to his original pack in the Carpathian Mountains. His mind had been restless since their encounter with the bushy-haired witch and the soldier he had fought before. He felt pulled to both of them and had watched both of them leave the Inn after he warned them in the forest.

"I must leave you, my brothers." Bucky addressed the wolves who had gathered around him. "I must return to where I came from. Take care of each other."

Bucky let himself melt into the form of the wolf. He walked away from his Yellowstone brothers and onto his new, uncertain path with a final howl.

_Just a little longer. Hold on a little longer. We will be back with our brothers soon. Let me keep this form until we are safe in our mountains. Just a little longer …_

Bucky woke up in a heavy sweat. He had been dreaming about the confrontation in the forest since he left Yellowstone. The look on the soldier's face told him that there was so much more to figure out. Hopefully, returning to the Carpathian Mountains and his original pack would help. The mountains that the dark man had taken him from could bring him closer to answers than the mountains of Yellowstone had.

 _"She is coming._ " Bucky heard the wolf whisper in his mind. " _The one who is promised will find us with our brothers._ "

"She has already found us." Bucky snarled as he looked around the dark bus. "She bound us, and we almost did not escape."

 _"Not the witch, she belongs to the soldier. The spy, the one we were promised._ " The wolf's fur brushed against the edges of his mind as Bucky tried to get his bearings. _"She will have a key and answers. She will not let them retake us."_

"I just need answers," Bucky whispered as he continued to scan the bus and the sky. "The pack will tell us what has happened since we were taken away. Then, we will search for more answers. We are not searching for her, never for her."

_Fog rose up from the ground and covered everything around him. His brother wolves faded into the mist, and a dark figure walked towards him. “It’s time to come home, Buck …”_

“Steve!” Bucky sat up in his bed with a start as his voice filled the room. He could feel his heart racing in his chest and the wolf pacing in the back of his mind. This was not the first time the shadows of a soldier had ended his dreams, but it was the first time the soldier had had a face and a name.

“This has to stop.” Bucky set his feet on the floor and looked around the room. “I have to find the lab in the forest and find some answers. I can’t continue to dream of shadows and mysteries. I feel like I am losing what little of my mind that I have left. I am in the mountains. I hear my brothers howl.”

 _“Our brothers are calling us.”_ The wolf brushed against the edges of Bucky’s mind as the fog of sleep lifted. _“Our brothers know the way to the answers. Listen to them call for us. Let me find them.”_

Bucky walked over to the window of the small room that he had rented and slid it open. “Just for tonight. We can’t risk being seen. In any form.”

Taking a deep breath, Bucky let the wolf take over his body and slipped into the night.

_She will lead you to where we need to go. She is waiting for us in the forests. I will find our brothers, and we will find her. Bite her, make her ours, and then we will hunt..._

“What is it with you and biting?’ Bucky shook his head and pulled a shirt from his bag. It seems that his scrambled brain and the inner wolf had decided that he had had enough sleep. “Might as well get ready for a hike. Maybe the wolf is right, maybe the answers are deeper in the forest than we have been before.”

 _“Of course, I’m right.”_ Bucky could almost hear laughter in the wolf’s voice as he continued to pack his rucksack for tonight’s hike. _“She is waiting for us in the forest. Let me find her. She has answers.”_

The smell of the earth faded as the scent of jasmine and gun oil filled his nose. His brothers howled as she walked through their territory. He let his brothers surround her as he waited in the cover of the trees. It was time …

_The wolf watched the red-haired woman walk into the clearing. She walked like there was nothing to fear, but her eyes never stopped. She continued to scan the area as his brothers’ growls filled the air._

“Nice doggies.” Natasha looked at the circle of wolves that began to close around her. She had not planned on facing down an entire pack of wolves to get answers, but nothing had been going to plan lately.

A rustle of leaves drew her eyes to the trees at the edge of the clearing. A large, white wolf stepped from the tree line and began to walk towards her. He was the only wolf who was not growling, and the other wolves parted to allow him into the circle when he reached them. The white wolf was different. He wasn’t growling, and one of his front legs was solid silver from shoulder to toes.

“Do you mind telling your friends that I mean no harm? I’m just here to find someone and talk.” Natasha watched the white wolf sit just inside the circle and stare at her. “There is no way you can be the same wolf that Steve saw at Yellowstone, but, then again, nothing is beyond reach where the two of you are concerned.”

The white wolf that had been at the edge of the circle stood again and took two steps towards her before he started to growl. Natasha held her hands out from her body and took a deep breath.

“I am not here to hurt anyone or anything.” She slowly clasped her hands in front of her body and touched the band at her wrist. “I’m just here to look for answers to a mystery. You and your pack are between me and where I need to be. Just let me pass, and everyone will come out of this unharmed.”

The white wolf started to move across the clearing towards Natasha. She shook her head as the wolf shifted into a man and stopped two steps in front of her.

“Not many ghosts ask for passage.” The man spoke in a low tone. “She said you would be coming. It is as it was promised.”

Natasha tried to catch her breath as she faced the dark-haired man standing in front of her. His left arm was covered in metal and had a red star embedded in the shoulder like a tattoo. The moonlight glinting off the metal of his arm sparked a memory for her.

“I have seen you before. We have fought before.” Natasha struggled to put strength into her voice. “There is no way any of this is happening. The Winter Soldier is a myth. Where did you come from? What happened to the wolf?”

“I am the wolf, and he is me.” The soldier shrugged and held out his left hand. “My brothers will not hurt you if you are with me. My wolf tells me you have answers for the fractured memories that pull at me. You can trust me. But, my brothers are wild and don’t always follow my lead.”

“You shot me.” Natasha continued to stare at the man in front of her. “You shot up half of DC to get to Steve and then you vanished. Why should I trust you or these wolves?”

“You don’t have to trust me, _obeshchal odin._ ” The soldier continued to look into Natasha’s eyes. “Now that you have found me, my brothers cannot let you leave. Come, there is shelter not far from here.”

Natasha reached out and took the hand that was still being offered to her. “I still don’t trust you. What guarantees do I have that you won’t bite?”

“None. I am _belyy volk_ , after all. Come …”

_She is as beautiful as the other promised. We need to prepare a den for her. She holds answers. She is the key to the memories that I still have._

Bucky watched the woman sleep with her knees drawn up and her back in the corner. She had reluctantly followed him, surrounded by his pack, to the old bunker he had found hidden in the forest. She still did not trust him.

“I’m not asleep.” Bucky watched her lift her head as she spoke. “I don’t know who you are or what you want. Other than the fact that you have shot me. Twice. That does not incline me to trust you.”

“We have a lot to look over, and you are the key. There is something hidden here.” Bucky lifted an eyebrow as he watched her unfold from her position against the wall. “ This is where the wolf paces the most. This feels like where we were made.”

I’ve seen pictures of this place.” Natasha looked closer at her surroundings. “The pictures in the strongbox in the old Hydra base. Maybe there are answers here.”

 _“She is the key.”_ The wolf whispered in the back of his mind. _“Help her look through the rooms. There is more to be found here.”_

“She needs to sleep,” Bucky growled softly. “We will all sleep, and then we will hunt.”

“Who are you talking to?” Natasha watched the soldier pace on the opposite side of the room. “Just sit and save your strength. This place has Hydra markings, and we will need to be sharp to search without blowing ourselves up. IF I have to sleep, then you have to as well.”

“The wolf paces as I pace.” The soldier stopped to look at Natasha. “He speaks to me when he does not control our shape. We were made here, I think. There are others that haunt this place and need us to find their answers.”

“It looks like your friends are not going to let us leave here anyway.” Natasha pointed to the wolves who had laid down in front of the door that led to the exit. “If you are going to insist that we sleep, We might as well get comfortable.”

“I will take the first watch.” The soldier walked to the wolves at the door. “My brothers will tell us if others are coming. Rest, the time to hunt will come soon enough.”

_Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon … Chelovek volk. Volk cheloveku. Odinokiy, chtoby upakovat'. Pak tp odinokiy. Dukh volka svyazyvayet etogo cheloveka s yego novymi brat'yami. S polnoy lunoy sdelat' yego bol'she, chem on byl. Volk cheloveku. Chelovek k volku. Belyy volk podnimayetsya … Mat' Rossiya vsegda poluchayet to, chto khochet, soldat. Sokhrani etot boy na potom … Zimniy soldat … Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York … Zimniy soldat … Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York …_

“Wake up.” Bucky felt her shaking his shoulder. “I don’t know what you’re dreaming, but I think it may be a clue. Wake up.”

Bucky struggled through the fog of his nightmare. “What was I saying? I often wake with words on my lips but no memory of why I am screaming them. What did I say?”

“It was more like mumbling.” She held out her hand. “Sit up, and we’ll see if we can figure out what it all means. By the way, I’m Natasha, Natasha Romanoff.”

 _“Her name was Romanoff.”_ The wolf stirred in his mind. _“She is as promised. She is the key.”_

“I would share my name if I knew what it was.” Bucky’s voice felt rougher than usual like he had been yelling in his sleep and caused damage. “I am called many things. Those who made me called me _Zimniy soldat._ My brothers call me _Belyy Volk_. The one who cast the change called me _oboroten’_. You can call me what you wish, Natasha.”

“If I understood some of what you said, your name is James.” Natasha pulled Bucky up from the floor where he had been sleeping. “For a guy from Brooklyn, you speak almost flawless Russian in your sleep. Care to explain that one?”

“If I could explain it, I wouldn’t be here.” Bucky grimaced as he rolled his neck to stretch out the muscles. “Did you understand what I said? Can you remember? It may be the key to my lost memories.”

“Slow down, Jimmy.” Natasha walked toward a desk which was shoved against the far wall. “This place looks like a lab and, if these guys were anything like Tony and Bruce, the guys who worked here kept notes. Let us see if we can find some paper to get what you said written down and then see if we can find their records.”

“Be careful.” Bucky grabbed for Natasha’s hand as she started to walk towards the desk. “There are many traps that cannot be seen until they are opened. I have no desire to blow up anytime soon.”

“It’s just a desk.” Natasha picked up the file folders that were laying on top of the desk. “These all say _operatsiya polnaya luna._ What does a full moon have to do with anything?”

“Even I know that werewolves are supposed to be affected by the full moon.” Bucky shrugged and walked towards Natasha and the folders she was holding. “We can look at the folders later. Find some paper so we can write out what you heard. That could be the clue for all of us.”

_Slushat’. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor’ba. Skoro uvidimsya … Slushat’. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor’ba. Skoro uvidimsya … She is ours. Bite her. Claim her. Keep her. Treasure her. Catch her. She is running … Catch her._

Bucky woke up to a cold bed and an even colder sweat. He had fallen asleep with Natasha curled beside him. Now, the space where she had been sleeping was cold and empty.

“Where are you, _obeshchal odin_?” Bucky looked around the small room he had rented for them in the rooming house. “It is still dark. My brothers patrol and protect us.”

The silence of the small room was eerie. He knew Natasha was not going to answer him because he could no longer feel her. It was just as his wolf had said. She had left.

He should have known she was going to run after she found the pictures in the last folder they had looked at earlier that evening. She had turned as pale as a ghost when she had seen the photos of a red-haired woman standing with her hand in the rough of a white wolf.

“O _beshchal odin_ , what do you see?” Bucky had asked Natasha as she continued to flip through the pictures. “I remember her. She was the one who trained me and protected my brothers. She gave everything to try to make me strong.”

“She looks just like me.” Natasha whispered, almost like she was afraid she would wake the ghost in the picture. “How can this be? There are pictures of her with a man and a wolf. Both of them look just like you and your wolf. These pictures were taken more than sixty years ago. How is this possible?”

“We have seen it in the scientists’ notes.” Bucky shrugged and picked up another folder from the desk. “I was given drugs and potions that changed many things within me. I wish I could remember everything so I could give you answers.”

“ _She will come and find us again,_ ” The wolf whispered as Bucky shook off the newest memories. “ _She has gone to get the witch and the soldier. Be patient. The hunt is almost done. The memories we seek are closer to being unlocked.”_

“I am tired.” Bucky growled as he picked up the folded paper on the small table beside his bed. “She left me. Why should I stay here without my key?”

 _“Read the letter,”_ the wolf snarled. _“She will be back, but she has work to do that we cannot do with her.”_

Bucky unfolded the letter and began to read.

_“I have to go. I have other things to find before we can finish unlocking the mysteries of who you are._

_I didn’t tell you everything you said that first night. I kept a piece of that just for me because I did not want to believe Steve._

_We know that those ten words cannot be said if we want you to keep control of your mind. We know the words to the spell that was spoken under the full moon that gave you your wolf. But, I know one more truth that I cann;o bring myself to believe._

_Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N’yu-York. It is why I called you James. It is what every soldier is taught to say when they are capture. It’s your name, rank, unit and hometown …_

_Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York_

_You’re Bucky … Steve was right … But you are not safe right now if I am with you. Stay safe, stay in the forest … stay in the mountains … Stay safe …”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation -  
> obeshchal odin - promised one
> 
> belyy volk - white wolf
> 
> Chelovek volk. Volk cheloveku. Odinokiy, chtoby upakovat'. Pak tp odinokiy. Dukh volka svyazyvayet etogo cheloveka s yego novymi brat'yami. S polnoy lunoy sdelat' yego bol'she, chem on byl. Volk cheloveku. Chelovek k volku. Belyy volk podnimayetsya. - Man to wolf. Wolf to man. Lone to pack. Pack to lone. Spirit of the wolf bind this man to his new brothers. With the full moon make him more than he has been. Wolf to man. Man to wolf. The white wolf rises.
> 
> Serzhant Dzheyms Barns. 107-ya armiya SSHA, Bruklin, N'yu-York. - Sergeant James Barnes. 107th, United States Army, Brooklyn, New York
> 
> Mat' Rossiya vsegda poluchayet to, chto khochet, soldat. Sokhrani etot boy na potom. - Mother Russia always gets what she wants, soldier. Save this fight for later
> 
> Zimniy soldat - Winter soldier
> 
> Slushat'. Lecheniye. Poyezd. Bor'ba. Skoro uvidimsya. - Listen. Heal. Train. Fight. I will see you soon.
> 
> Toska rzhavaya, semnadtsat', rassvet, pech', devyat', dobrokachestvennaya, vozvrashcheniye domoy, odin, gruzovoy vagon - Longing, rusted, seventeen, daybreak, furnace, nine, benign, homecoming, one, freight car
> 
> Oboroten' - werewolf

**Author's Note:**

> This story will be updated ONCE every TWO WEEKS on WENESDAYS starting on the 29th of July (real life and school depending) and running through the mid/end of October. Please be patient and kind! Thank you!


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